JAN  271910      *) 


^// 


Division     li  S  I  I  9  (o 

Section      .4.  C  (^  1 


*      MAR 
>>      


AMURRU 

THE  HOME  OF  THE  NORTHERN 
SEMITES 


A  Study  Showing  that  the  Religion  and 

Culture  of  Israel  are  Not  of 

Babylonian  Origin 


BY 

ALBERT  T.  CLAY,  PhD, 

PROFESSOR    OF    SEMITIC    PHILOLOGY    AND    ARCHAEOLOGY, 
UNIVERSITY    OF    PENNSYLVANIA 


PHILADELPHIA  : 

®l|r  ^unbag  ^rljool  QlimpH  CUnmjmttji 

1909 


Copyright,  1909,  by 
The  Sunday  School  Times  Company 


TO 

PROFESSOR  EDGAR  FAHS  SMITH 

Ph.D.    Sc.D.    LL.D. 

Vice  Pkcjvost  of  thb  University  of  Pennsylvania 

BELOVED  BY  COLLEAGUES 
AND  STUDENTS 

IN   GRATEFUL   APPRECIATION 


PREFACE 


These  discussions  are  the  outgrowth  of  The  Reinicker 
Lectures  for  the  year  1908,  delivered  at  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Theological  Seminary,  Alexandria,  Virginia. 
Instead  of  publishing  the  lectures  as  delivered,  which 
covered  the  subject,  "Recent  Discoveries  in  Bible  Lands, ^' 
it  seemed  preferable  to  present  a  special  phase  of  the  sub- 
ject, which  is  here  treated  more  fully  than  in  the  lectures. 

In  the  author's  work.  Light  on  the  Old  Testament 
from  Bahel,  a  protest  was  expressed  against  the  claims 
of  the  Pan-Babylonists  that  Babylonia  had  extensively 
influenced  the  culture  of  Israel.  Continued  researches 
have  opened  up  new  vistas  of  the  subject,  which  confirm 
the  contention  that  the  Pan-Babylonists  have  not  only 
greatly  overestimated  the  influence  of  the  Babylonian 
culture  upon  Israel,  but  that  the  Semitic  Babylonians 
came  from  the  land  of  Amurru;  that  is,  Sjrria  and  Pales- 
tine, and  that  their  culture  was  an  amalgamation  of  what 
was  once  Amorite  or  West  Semitic  and  the  Sumerian 
which  they  found  in  the  Euphrates  valley. 

In  order  to  make  the  main  outlines  of  the  subject 
as  well  as  the  discussions  which  bear  directly  upon  the 
Old  Testament  more  readable,  the  technical  material 
has  been  confined  largely  to  Part  II,  but  frequent  refer- 
ences to  it  are  made  in  Part  I.  Instead  of  quoting  the 
numbers  of  the  pages  referred  to,  they  will  Ix'  found  in 

5 


6         AMURRU   HOME   OF   NORTHERN   SEMITES 

the  Index.  The  author  realizes  that  in  a  number  of 
instances  other  interpretations  of  certain  individual 
facts  are  possible.  Modification  of  views  presented  must 
necessarily  follow  new  discoveries  as  they  are  made ;  but 
nevertheless  the  writer  believes  that  the  main  conten- 
tions will  remain  undisturbed. 

To  my  colleagues,  Professor  J.  A.  Montgomery  and  Pro- 
fessor Morris  Jastrow,  Jr.,  I  am  deeply  grateful  for  their 
generous  help  and  encouragement  during  the  preparation 
of  this  book.  And  I  also  extend  my  hearty  thanks  for  the 
kind  assistance  rendered  by  my  friends,  Professor  G.  A. 
Barton,  of  Bryn  Mawr ;  Professor  W.  Max  IMiiller,  of  Phila- 
delphia; Professor  Arthur  Ungnad,  of  Jena;  the  Rev.  Dr. 
C.  H.  W.  Johns,  Fellow  at  Cambridge  University; 
Dr.  Hermann  Ranke,  of  Berlin;  Dr.  Arno  Poebel,  of 
Eisenach;  and  Dr.  William  Playes  Ward,  of  New  York. 
To  all  it  gives  me  pleasure  to  aclmowledge  my  indebted- 
ness and  extend  my  warm  gratitude.  Let  me  add,  in 
mentioning  the  names  of  these  scholars,  that  they  are 
in  no  wise  responsible  for  the  views  expressed  in  these 
lectures. 

Albert  T.  Clay. 

University  of  Pennsylvania. 


CONTENTS 


PART  I. 

PAGE 

Introductory  Remarks 13 

Creation  Story 44 

The  Sabbath 55 

Antediluvian  Patriarchs 63 

Deluge  Story 71 

Original  Home  of  Semitic  Culture 83 

PART  II. 

Amurru  in  the  Cuneiform  Inscriptions 95 

Amurru  in  West  Semitic  Inscriptions 150 

APPENDIX. 

I.  Ur  of  the  Chaldees 167 

II.  The  Name  of  Jerusalem 173 

III.  The  Name  of  Sargon 181 

IV.  The  Name  NIN-IB 195 

V.  The  Name  Yahweh 202 


ABBREVIATIONS 


A.  D.  D. — Johns,  Assyrian  Deeds  and  Documents. 
A.  J.  S.  L. — American  Journal  of  Se7nitic  Languages. 

A.  K.  G.  W. — Abhandlungen  der  philologisch-historischen  Classe  der 

Konigl.  Sdchsischen  Gesellschaft  der  Wissenschaften. 
Altbab.  Priv. — Meissner,  Beitrdge  zum  Altbabylonischen  Privatrecht. 
Asien. — Miiller,  Asien  und  Europa  nach  Altdgyptischen  Denkmdlern. 

B.  A. — Beitrdge  zur  Assyriologie,  edited  by  Delitzsch  and  Haupt. 

B.  E. — Babylonian  Expedition  of  the    University  of  Pennsylvania, 

Vol.  I,  1  and  2,  Hilprecht;  VI,  1,  Ranke;  VI,  2,  Poebel;  VIII,  1, 

Clay;  IX,  HUprecht  and  Clay;  X,  Clay;  XIV,  Clay;  XV.  Clay; 

and  XX,  Hilprecht. 
Babyloniaca. — Edited  by  ViroUeaud. 
Bezold,  Catalogue. — Catalogue  of  the  Cuneiform  Tablets  in  the  Kouyun- 

fik  Collection. 
Brown,  Heb.  Die. — Brown,  Driver  and  Briggs,  Hebrew  and  English 

Lexicon  of  the  Old  Testament. 
Briinnow,  List — A  Classified  List  of  Cuneiform  Ideographs. 

C.  T. — Cuneiform  Texts  from  Babylonian  Tablets,  etc.,  in  the  British 

Museum,  by  King,  Pinches  and  Thompson. 
Decouvertes — de  Sarzec  Heuzey,  Decourvertes  en  Chaldee. 
Del.   en  Perse — Scheil,    Textes  Elamites  Semitiques,  Delegation  en 

Perse. 
Ephemeris — Lidzbarski,  Ephemeris  fiir  Semitische  Epigraphik. 
J.  B.  L. — Journal  of  Biblical  Literature. 
J.  R.  A.  S. — Journal  of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society. 
Harper,  Letters — Assyrian  and  Babylonian  Letters,  Vols.  I  to  VII. 
H.  W.  B. — Delitzsch,  Assyrian  Handworterbuch. 
Huber,   Personennamen — Die    Personennamen    in    der    Keilschrift- 

urkunden  aus  der  Zeit  der  Kdnige  von  Ur  und  Nisin. 
Jastrow,  Rel. — Die  Religion  Babyloniens  und  Assyriens. 
K. — Kouyunjik  Collection  in  Bezold' s  Catalogue  of  the  British  Museum. 
K.  A.  T.^ — Die  Keilinschriften  und  das  A  lie  Testament,  by  Zimniem 

and  Winckler. 

9 


10      AMURRU   HOME    OF   NORTHERN    SEMITES 

K.  B. — Keilinschriftliche  Bihliothek. 

King,  Chronicles — Chronicles   Concerning  Early  Babylonian   Kingt, 

Vols.  I  and  II. 
Meissner,  Ideogr. — Seltene  Assyrische  Ideogramme. 
Meissner,    Supplement — Supplement    zu    den    Assyrischen     Wdrier- 

hiichem. 
Muss-Amolt,  Diet. — Concise  Dictionary  of  the  Assyrian  Languages. 
Noldeke,    Festschrift — Orientalische   Studien    Theodor   Noldeke   zum 

siebzigsten  Geburtstag. 
0.  L.  Z. — Orientalistische  Literatur-Zeitung,  edited  by  Peiser. 
Prolegomena — Delitzsch,     Prolegomena      eines     neuen     Hebraisch- 

Aramdischen  Worterbuch  zum  Alten  Testament. 
P.  S.  B.  A. — Proceedings  of  the  Society  of  Biblical  ArchoBology. 
Ranke,  P.  N. — Early  Babylonian  Personal  Names,  B.  E.,  D,  Vol.  III. 
R.,  I.,  etc.,  or  Rawlinson — The  Cuneiform  Inscriptions  of  Western 

Asia,  Vols.  I  to  V. 
Rev.  Ass. — Revue  d'Assyriologie. 
R.  S. — Revue  Semitique. 

Rec.  Tab.  Chal. — Thureau-Dangin,  Recueil  de  Tablettes  Chaldiennes. 
Strassmaier,  Nbk.,  Nbn.,  etc. — Babylonische  Texte,  Inschriften  von 

Nabuchodonosor. 
Tallqvist,   Namenbuch — Neubabylonisches   Namenbuch   zu   den   Ges- 

chdftsurkunden. 
V-  B. — Thureau-Dangin,  Die  Sumerischen  und  Akkadischen  Kon- 

igsinschriften — Vorderasiatische  Bibliothek,  1,  Ab.  1. 
V.  S. — Vorderasiatische Schrijtdenkmaler,Yo\s.lll,Yll, etc., Ungnad. 
Z.  A.,  or  Zeit.  fur  Ass. — Zeitschrift  fiir  A ssTjriologie,  edited  by  Bezold. 
Z.  A.  T.  W. — Zeitschrift  fiir  die  alttestamentUche  Wissenschaft, — 
Z.  D.  M.  G. — Zeitschrift  der  Deutschen  MorgerUdndischen  Gesellschafi. 


PART    I 


INTRODUCTORY  REMARKS 


The  current  theory  of  Semitic  scholars  concerning 
the  origin  of  the  Semitic  Babylonians  is  that  they  came 
from  Arabia,  and  that  after  their  culture  had  developed 
in  Babylonia  it  was  carried  westward  into  Amurru 
{i.e.,  Palestine  and  SyriaO  generally  known  as  the  land 
of  the  Amorites. 

Without  attempting  to  determine  the  ultimate 
origin  of  the  Semites,  the  wiiter  holds  that  every  indi- 
cation, resulting  from  his  investigations,  proves  that 
the  movement  of  the  Semites  was  eastward  from  Amurru 
and  Aram  (i.e.,  from  the  lands  of  the  West)  into  Baby- 
lonia. In  other  words,  the  culture  of  the  Semitic 
Babylonians  points,  if  not  to  its  origin,  at  least  to  a 
long  development  in  Amurru  before  it  was  carried 
into  Babylonia. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  earliest  name  for  Northern 
Babylonia  in  the  inscriptions  is  Vri.  Shumer  or 
Southern  Babylonia,  was  called  Engi,  and  Northern 
Babylonia  was  called  t)ri;  i.e.,  Babylonia,  as  well  as 
the  district  extending  to  the  shore  of  the  Mediterranean, 
was  called  Vri  or  Ari.  The  name  Vri  or  Ari,  it  will  be 
shown,  is  very  probably  derived  from  Amurru,the  name  of 
the  West  country.     This  shows  that  the  name  of  Baby- 

*  See  Barton,  Semitic  Origins,  chap.  I,  and  Paton,  Early  History 
of  Palestine  and  Syria,  chaps.  III-VIII. 

13 


14      AMURRU    HOME   OF   NORTHERN    SEMITES 

Ionia,  which  is  Cri  in  the  earliest  known  period  of 
Semitic  Babylonian  history,  is  a  geographical  extension 
of  the  land  in  the  West,  known  as  Amurru  or  Vri. 
Not  only  was  the  name  of  the  country  Amurru  carried 
to  that  region,  but  it  will  also  be  demonstrated  that  the 
culture  of  the  Semitic  Babylonians  was  largely  transported 
from  the  West.  The  Amorites  in  moving  eastward 
into  Babylonia  carried  with  them  not  only  their  religion, 
but  their  traditions,  such  as  their  creation  story,  ante- 
diluvian patriarchs,  deluge  legend,  etc.  In  considering 
the  position  taken  by  the  Pan-Babylonists  in  Part  I, 
concerning  these  and  other  subjects,  the  above  state- 
ments, which  are  fully  discussed  in  Part  II,  should  be 
kept  constantly  in  mind. 

A  little  more  than  a  decade  ago  there  appeared  in 
Germany  a  school  of  critics  known  generally  as  the 
Pan-Babylonian  or  Astral-mythological  School.  The 
parallels  to  certain  features  of  the  Bible  stories  that  are 
found  in  the  Babylonian  literature  determined  for  the 
Pan-Babylonists  that  the  origin  of  much  of  the 
Hebrew  culture  is  to  be  found  in  Babylonian  mythology. 
The  work  of  Stucken,  Astralmytherij  Part  I,  on  Abraham, 
published  in  1896,  which  was  followed  by  Part  II,  on 
Lot,  in  1897,  may  be  said  to  be  the  beginning  of  these 
efforts;  although  similar  conceptions  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment antedate  this  work. 

Professor  Winckler,  of  Berlm,  may  be  said  to  be  the 
real  founder  of  the  school.  In  a  series  of  contributions 
from  his  pen,  following  his  Geschichte  Israels,  Vol.  II, 
which  was  published  in  1900,  he  has  unfolded  his  theory 


INTRODUCTORY    REMARKS  15 

of  the  Universe.  The  world  consists  of  heaven  and 
earth.  The  heavens  are  subdivided  into  the  northern 
heavens,  the  zodiac,  and  the  heavenly  ocean.  The 
earthly  part  of  the  universe  also  consists  of  a  threefold 
division,  the  heaven,  the  earth,  and  the  waters  beneath 
the  earth.  In  this  system  the  signs  of  the  zodiac  play 
the  important  part,  for  the  planets  as  they  passed 
through  the  heavens  enabled  the  astrologers  to  inter- 
pret the  will  of  their  deities.  Upon  these  ideas  a  com- 
plete cosmological  system  is  worked  out.  The  heavens, 
corresponding  to  the  earth,  reflect  their  influence  upon 
it,  with  the  result  that  everything  in  heaven  has  its 
counterpart  on  earth.  The  gods  of  heaven  have  dwell- 
ings on  earth,  presided  over  by  earthly  kings,  who 
as  representatives  of  the  gods  are  considered  their 
incarnations.  The  heavens  reveal  the  past,  present, 
and  the  future  for  those  who  could  read  them.  What 
occurs  on  earth  is  only  a  copy  of  what  occurred  in 
heaven.  Astrology,  therefore,  was  the  all-important 
test  and  interpreter  of  ancient  history.  All  ancient 
nations,  including  Israel,  practised  it  or  were  influenced 
by  it. 

The  periodic  changes  in  the  positions  of  the  heavenly 
bodies  gave  rise  to  certain  sacred  numbers.  These 
Winckler  uses  to  show  the  bearing  of  the  Babylonian 
astral  mythology  upon  things  Israelitish.  According 
to  his  views,  not  only  is  the  Israelitish  cult  dependent 
upon  Babylonian  originals,  but  also  the  patriarchs 
and  other  leaders  of  Israel,  such  as  Joshua,  Gideon, 
Saul,  David,  and  others,  are  sun  or  lunar  mythological 
personages. 


16      AMURRU    HOME    OF   NORTHERN    SEMITES 

Abraham  and   Lot   are   the  same   as  the   Gemini^ 
called  by  the   Romans  Castor  and  Pollux.     Abraham, 
together  with  his  wife,  who  was  also  his  sister,  are 
forms  of  Tammuz  (who  was  a  solar  god)  and  Ishtar, 
the  former  being  the  brother  and  bridegroom  of  the 
latter.     As  Ishtar  was  the  daughter  of  SiUj  the  moon- 
god,  Abraham  must  be  a  moon-god;  for  he  went  from 
Ur  to  Haran,  two  places  dedicated  to  that  deity.     Many 
circumstances  of  the  myths  concerning  Abraham  cor- 
roborate   this.     The    318    men    who    were    Abraham's 
allies,  in  the  fourteenth  chapter  of  Genesis,  are  the  318 
days  of  the  year  when  the  moon  is  visible.     All  Baby- 
lonian gods  were  represented  by  numbers.     Kirjath- 
arba,  the   one   center   of   Abraham  myths,  means  the 
"city  of  Arba,  or  four."     Arha  must  then  be  the  moon- 
god  which  has  four   phases.      Beersheba,   "the   seven 
wells,"  another  center  with  which  Abraham  myths  were 
identified,  also  represents  the  moon,  because  there  are 
seven  days  in  each  phase  of  the  moon.     Isaac,  who 
lived  at  Beersheba,  must,  therefore,  also  be  a  moon 
deity.     The  four  wives  of  Jacob  show  that  he  also  is 
the  same.     His  twelve  sons  are  the  twelve   months. 
Leah 's  seven  sons  are  the  gods  of  the  week.     The  twelve 
hundred    pieces    of     silver    which    Benjamin    received 
represent  a  multiple  of  the  thirty  days  of  the  month: 
and  the  five  changes  of  garments  that  he  received  aie 
the  five  intercalary  days  of  the  Babylonian  year. 

In  Joseph,  Winckler  sees  a  Tammuz ^  or  sun-myth. 
His  dream  shows  the  priority  of  the  sun.  Esau  identi- 
fied with  Edom  is  the  same,  as  is  shown  by  his 
"redness."     The  stories  of  Moses,    Joshua  (who  is  an- 


INTRODUCTORY    REMARKS  17 

other  form  of  Moses),  Ehud,  Gideon,  are  sun-myths. 
In  David,  Winckler  finds  more  evidence  of  a  solar  origin 
tfian  in  all  other  biblical  characters.  Solomon  and 
others  are  explained  as  having  the  same  origin.  The 
recurrence  of  characteristic  numbers  is  the  chief  cri- 
terion by  which  these  supposed  facts  are  determined. 
Professor  Zimmern,  of  Leipzig,^  also  belongs  to  this 
school,  but  pays  more  attention  to  analogies,  and 
to  the  dependence  of  the  Hebrew  stories  upon  Baby- 
lonian originals,  than  to  the  recurrence  of  numbers. 
Features  of  the  Old  Testament  stories  that  are  parallel 
to  certain  features  in  the  Babylonian  literature  point, 
he  believes,  immistakably  to  Babylonian  origin.  The 
incorporation  of  the  Babylonian  creation  story  in  the 
Old  Testament  shows  that  in  Israel  the  writer  considered 
Yahweh  to  be  identical  with  Marduk.  Later,  these  same 
elements  of  the  Marduk  cult  were  applied  to  Christ  by 
the  Christian  Jews.  The  story  of  the  birth  of  Christ 
has  its  origin  in  the  fabled  birth  of  Marduk.  Babylonian 
elements  are  also  found  in  the  regal  office  of  Christ,  as 
well  as  in  His  passion.  Ashurbanipal,  as  a  "penitent 
expiator,"  gave  rise  to  the  story  of  His  weeping  over 
Jerusalem  and  His  agony  in  the  garden.  His  death 
is  suggested  by  that  of  Marduk  and  Tammuz;  and  the  idea 
of  His  descent  into  Hades  comes  from  the  goddess  Ishtar  's 
descent.  The  resurrection  is  a  repetition  of  Marduk 
and  Tammuz   myths,  etc.^ 

^  See  Keilinschrifttexten  und  das  Alte  Testament. 
'  For  a  fuller  statement  of  the  views  of  Winckler  and  Zimmem, 
see  Barton,  Biblical  World,  1908,  pp.  436  ft. 


18      AMURRU    HOME    OP^    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

Dr.  Alfred  Jeremias,  of  Leipzig,  by  his  publication, 
Das  Alte  Testament  im  Lichte  des  alien  Orients,  has  popu- 
larized the  views  of  this  school,  but  fortunately  makes 
his  position  more  reasonable  by  admitting  the  possi- 
bility that  the  patriarchs  may  be  historical  personages; 
for  example,  the  twelve  sons  of  Jacob,  he  says,  repre- 
^sent  the  zodiacal  signs,  and  yet  it  is  possible  that  they 
may  be  historical  persons. 

Professor  Jensen,  of  Marburg,  in  a  work  published 
in  1906,  of  over  a  thousand  pages,  Das  Gilgamesch- 
Epos  in  der  Weltliteratur,  finds  the  origin  of  the  biblical 
characters  of  Abraham  down  to  Christ,  including  John 
the  Baptist,  in  this  Babylonian  collection  of  sun-myths. 
The  Gospels  he  calls  "  Mythographs. ' '  Even  references 
to  biblical  characters  in  the  ancient  monuments  are 
explained  away,  or  no  account  is  taken  of  them. 
In  short,  the  origin  of  what  we  know  as  Israelitish  is 
really  an  adaptation  by  late  Hebrew  writers  of  the 
Babylonian  sun-myths,  which  had  been  woven  together 
into  what  is  known  as  the  Gilgamesh  epic. 

In  one  of  the  pamphlets  issued  this  year  by  Jensen, 
entitled  Moses  Jesus  Paulus,  he  defends  his  views 
against  his  critics.  His  position  is  stated  in  the  words: 
"The  old  Israelitish  history,  the  history  of  Jesus  of 
Nazareth,  has  collapsed,  and  the  apostolic  history  has 
been  exploded.  Babylon  has  laid  Babylon  in  ruins — a 
catastrophe  for  the  Old  and  New  Testament  science, 
but  truly  not  undeserved;  a  catastrophe  for  the  mythol- 
ogy of  our  church  and  synagogue,  which  reaches  into 
our  present  time  like  a  beautiful  ruin." 


INTRODUCTORY    REMARKS  19 

By  the  expression,  "Babylon  has  laid  Babylon  in 
ruins,"  Prof.  Jensen  evidently  means  that  the  discoveries 
which  have  been  used  to  establish  the  historical  value  of 
the  Old  Testament  are  now  used  to  show  that  the  founda- 
tions upon  which  the  Christian  and  Jewish  theology  rest 
are  borrowed  from  Babylonian  mythology.  The  same 
phrase  in  question  is,  however,  equally  applicable  in 
these  lectures,  for  the  claim  is  that  Babylonian  researches 
show  that  the  contentions  of  the  Pan-Babylonists  are 
without  foundation,  and  that  the  literature  of  Israel  is 
not  to  be  regarded  as  being  composed  of  transformed 
Babylonian  and  Assyrian  myths. 

Some  of  these  scholars  and  their  followers  hold  that 
only  a  change  of  names  has  taken  place.  On  the  one 
hand,  all  that  originally  belonged  to  Marduk  is  trans- 
ferred to  Christ ;  and  on  the  other,  the  legends  of  Gilga- 
mesh  have  been  adopted  and  adapted  by  the  Hebrews, 
so  that  all  which  refers  to  the  life  of  Christ — ^his  passion, 
his  death,  his  descent,  his  resurrection  and  his  ascen- 
sion— are  to  be  explained  as  having  their  origin  in  Baby- 
lonian mythology. 

Although  these  theories  have  been  advanced  by 
some  of  the  foremost  scholars,  they  need  more  proof 
before  they  can  be  seriously  considered  as  more  than 
conjectures  similar  to  those  that  have  been  based  on 
Greek  and  Roman  mythology  for  centuries.  The 
anthropomorphic  character  of  the  gods  enables  one  to 
find  parallels,  in  one  form  or  another,  for  practically 
everything  that  took  place  in  the  lives  of  all  biblical 
characters,  even  in  that  of  the  Nazarene.    For  example, 


20      AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

in  Greek  mythology,  Tammuz,  the  darling  of  Aph- 
rodite, was  slain;  but  on  the  third  day  they  rejoiced 
at  the  resurrection  of  this  lord  of  light — ^who  also  was 
known  by  the  name  of  /ow.  A  more  striking  parallel 
could  not  be  desired.  Further,  this  name  law  has 
rightly  been  said  to  represent  closely  the  divine  name 
Yahweh,  as  it  appears  in  the  inscriptions;  hence  addi- 
tional far-reaching  conjectures  could  be  offered.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  Greek  mythology  offers  far  more  interest- 
ing parallels  than  the  Babylonian. 

The  German  savants  who  belong  to  this  school 
have  their  counterparts  in  England  and  on  this 
side  of  the  Atlantic.  The  celestial  light  has  penetrated 
these  shores  and  we  have  seen  in  the  past  and  are 
beginning  to  see  more  and  more  the  reflections  flare 
up  in  a  modified  as  well  as  in  an  intensified  form. 

The  dependence  of  the  culture  of  Israel  upon 
Babylonia  seems  to  be  conceded  by  almost  every 
scholar.  This  conception  has  grown  steadily  within 
the  last  few  decades,  so  that  the  edifice  which  has  been 
reared  has  now  reached  its  full  height,  the  capstone 
has  been  set,  and  the  structure  is  complete.  A  change 
of  names,  that  is  all,  and  a  Babylonian  deity,  Marduk 
or  Bel,  becomes  Christ. 

The  writer  feels  that  the  very  height  to  which 
this  creation  has  attained  is  the  salutary  feature  of  the 
whole  effort,  for  the  foimdation  upon  which  it  rests  is 
of  such  a  character  that  it  will  surely  cause  the  entire 
structure  to  fall.  It  is  not  the  purpose  of  this  discussion 
to  take  down  one  stone  after  another  and  submit  them 


INTRODUCTORY    REMARKS  21 

to  an  examination,  and  so  endeavor  to  reduce  the 
height  and  keep  the  building  within  proper  proportions; 
but  it  is  the  purpose  to  examine  carefully  the  very 
foundation  stones  of  the  structure  and  ascertain  upon 
what  it  rests. 

Before  discussing  some  of  the  important  claims  of  these 
critics,  a  word  may  be  said  with  reference  to  the  Baby- 
lonian astral  ideas  and  Israel.  In  the  first  place,  contrary 
to  the  position  taken  by  Winckler  and  his  school  that  as- 
tronomy took  its  rise  in  the  early  period  of  Babylonian 
history,  it  is  now  maintained  by  Kugler,^  Jastrow,^  and 
others,  that  the  period  when  the  science  of  astronomy  was 
developed  in  Babylonia  was  between  the  fourth  and 
second  centuries  B.C.,  that  is  to  say,  during  the  period 
of  Greek  influence  in  the  Euphrates  Valley.  Kugler^ 
dates  the  earliest  astronomical  tablet  522  B.C.,  although 
he  admits  that  it  shows  evidence  of  being  revised  from 
an  earlier  tablet.  While  an  argument  e  silentio  is  pre- 
carious, this  absence  of  astronomical  inscriptions  of  the 
character  that  is  supposed  to  have  influenced  Israel  is 
strikingly  significant. 

More  important  is  the  fact  that  there  is  absolutely 
no  proof  for  the  existence  of  such  an  astral  conception 
of  the  universe  in  the  Old  Testament.  In  fact,  as  far 
as  is  known  to  the  writer,  there  is  an  utter  lack  of  data 


^  Kulturhistorische  Bedeutung  der  Babylonischen  Astronomie,  p. 
38  ff. 

^Proceedings  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  XLVII, 
No.  190,  1908,  p.  667. 

'  Sternkunde  und  Sterndienst  in  Babel,  I,  p.  2. 


22      AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

upon  which  these  astral  theories  rest.^  Surely  the 
injunction  to  have  nothing  to  do  with  astrology  cannot 
be  construed  as  countenancing  it.  In  Deuteronomy 
12  :  2-7,  the  law  required  that  the  man  who  worshiped 
the  sun,  moon,  or  any  of  the  host  of  heaven,  should  be 
put  to  death.  The  same  spirit  is  maintained  in  Deu- 
teronomy 4  :  15,  19.  See  also  in  w^hat  contempt  and 
ridicule  the  prophet  (Is.  47  :  13)  spoke  of  the  astrologers, 
star-gazers,  and  monthly  prognosticators,  when  he  tells 
the  people  to  let  these  save  them  from  the  coming 
disasters.  That  the  people  of  Canaan,  or  rather  of 
Amurru,  worshiped  the  sun,  moon  and  stars,  and 
perhaps  divined  by  them,  seems  to  be  evident  from 
these  injunctions;  but  the  legislation  against  astrology 
in  Israel  surely  is  sufficient  proof  that  it  had  not  pene- 
trated the  cult,  even  if  some  of  the  people  were  influenced 
by  it. 

The  same  is  true  of  liver  divination,  which  serves 
as  another  illustration  of  Israel's  attitude  towards  such 
practises.  The  requirement  of  the  Mosaic  law  to 
destroy  the  so-called  "caul"  above  the  liver  is  a  proof 
that  in  Israel  divination  by  the  liver  was  not  sanctioned. 
AVe  know  that  the  Babylonians  believed  that  by 
inspecting  the  liver  of  the  sheep  they  could  ascer- 
tain what  the  gods  desired  to  communicate  to  them. 
Through  the  researches  of  Professor  Jastrow,^  we  have 
obtained  an  excellent  understanding  of  this  practise 
of     the     Babylonians.      The     Greeks,     Romans,     and 

^  See  Rogers,  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  p.  220. 

'  See  his  Religion  Bahyloniens  und  Assyriens,  II,  p.  174  ff. 


INTRODUCTORY    REMARKS  23 

Etruscans  also  divined  by  the  liver.  To  what 
extent  the  peoples  of  Amurru  practised  hepatoscopy  is 
not  known.  But  in  the  Pentateuch,  in  no  less  than 
ten  passages  a  protest  is  implied  against  this  kind  of 
divination.*  The  ordinance  provides  for  the  burning 
of  the  "caul  above  the  liver,"  which  Professor  Moore 
has  shown  refers  to  the  finger-shaped  appendix  of  the 
caudate  lobe,  although  the  rest  of  the  liver  was  permitted 
to  be  eaten.  The  reason  they  were  required  to  burn 
this  part  of  the  liver,  as  Professor  Jastrow  has  suggested, 
is  that  it  was  a  symbolical  protest  against  the  use  of  the 
liver  for  divination  purposes.  By  destroying  this 
portion,  which  played  such  an  important  part  in  hepa- 
toscopy, the  people  were  warned  not  to  divert  the 
sacrifice  into  a  form  of  divination.  We  reach,  there- 
fore, the  same  conclusion.  The  cult,  while  recognizing 
the  existence  of  such  practises,  cannot  be  said  to  be 
even  tainted  with  them;  but  by  its  protests  emphasizes 
the  importance  of  holding  aloof  from  them.  And,  at 
the  same  time,  it  cannot  be  said  that  these  regulations 
were  directed  especially  against  Babylonian  influences; 
because  astrology  and  liver  divination  appear  to  have 
been  widespread  in  antiquity,  and  doubtless  were  in  vogue 
among  other  peoples  beside  those  already  mentioned — in 
all  probability  among  the  Canaanite  nations. 

Many  theories  of  these  and  other  scholars  have 
arisen  and  have  found  acceptance,  on  the  supposition 
that  there  is  no  antiquity  for  the  Hebrew  culture  as  early 

'  See  Ex.  29  :  13,  22  ;  Lev.  3:4,  10,  15 ;  7  :  4  ;  8  :  16,  25  ;  9  : 
10,  19. 


24      AMURRU    HOME    OF   NORTHERN    SEMITES 

as  Abraham's  time.  The  ancestors  of  the  Hebrews  are 
considered  by  many  of  these  writers  to  be  nomadic  Arabs 
who  came  up  from  Arabia  about  the  time  of  Abraham; 
not  because  one  iota  of  evidence  has  been  produced  to 
discredit  the  accounts  concerning  the  origin  of  the 
Hebrews,  as  preserved  in  the  Old  Testament,  namely, 
that  they  came  from  Aram  (or  Aram-Naharaim), 
but  simply  because  the  speculations  of  these  scholars 
have  led  them  to  such  conclusions.  And  yet,  contrary 
to  what  has  been  claimed,  many  discoveries  that  have 
been  made  in  the  past  decades  of  research  and  investi- 
gation tend  to  show  the  historical  value  of  these  relics 
of  antiquity. 

Let  us  inquire  what  the  excavations  have  thus  far 
revealed  concerning  this  interpenetration  of  the  Baby- 
lonian culture  in  Israel.  During  the  past  years  explora- 
tions have  been  conducted  principally  at  four  sites  in 
Palestine  belonging  to  the  early  period,  namely,  Lachish 
and  Gezer  in  the  South,  and  Ta'annek  and  Megiddo  in 
the  North.  On  first  impressions  these  excavations  might 
serve  the  Pan-Babylonists  better  than  anything  else 
with  arguments  for  the  mythological  character  of  the 
entire  history  of  Israel.  If  we  did  not  know  that  Israel 
actually  lived  in  Palestine,  we  would  scarcely  have 
inferred  it  from  what  these  excavations  have  revealed. 
However,  according  to  the  recent  report  of  Macalister,  an 
interesting  old  Hebrew  calendar  inscription  has  been 
found  at  Gezer.  Macalistor  placed  the  date  of  it  in  the 
sixth  century  B.C.,  but  Lidzbarski  thinks  it  is  the  oldest, 
or  at  all   events  one  of   the   oldest,  of  West  Semitic 


INTRODUCTORY    REMARKS  25 

inscriptions.*  Unfortunately,  systematic  excavations  in 
Amurru  proper,  i.e.,  the  Lebanon  district,  have  not  yet 
been  conducted.  This  deprives  us  of  the  proper  tests  for 
this  thesis. 

The  lack  of  archaeological  remains  is  due  to  two 
important  facts.  Israel  used  a  perishable  material  for 
ofdihary  writing  purposes;  and  the  nation,  like  other 
pure  Semitic  peoples,  while  possessing  a  literature, 
apparently  did  not  develop  the  plastic  arts.  We  need 
not  expect  to  find  great  creations  in  sculpture  and 
architecture  by  the  Hebrews  or,  in  fact,  by  any  other 
pure  Semitic  people  of  ancient  times.  The  antiquities 
of  artistic  value  found  in  Babylonia  were  in  all  proba- 
bility produced  by  foreigners,  perhaps  the  Sumerians, 
who  belonged  to  a  non-Semitic  race.  While  some  work 
discovered  in  Assyria  is  of  a  comparatively  high  order, 
especially  in  the  depicting  of  animals,  we  must  bear  in 
mind  that  the  black-headed  Sumerian  was  still  extant 
in  that  land.  When  Israel  was  ready  to  build  the 
temple,  Phoenician  artificers  were  secured.  While  the 
Phoenicians  spoke  a  Semitic  tongue,  their  art,  which 
is  generally  acknowledged  to  be  hybrid  Egyptian, 
may  indicate  also  a  mixture  in  race.  The  works  of 
art  accredited  to  them  would  be  sufficient  proof  for 
this  conjecture.  In  short,  the  archseological  remains 
discovered  in  Palestine  are  of  such  a  character  that, 
up  to  the  present  time,  there  is  little  to  show  that  Israel 
developed  an  art — yes,  even  to  show  that  such  a  people 
actually  occupied  the  land. 

*  See  Palestine  Exploration  Fund,  January,  1909,  p.  26. 


26      AMURRU    HOME    OF   NORTHERN    SEMITES 

This  much  can  be  emphasized,  without  taking  into 
consideration  the  clay  tablets  found  in  that  district  which 
will  be  discussed  later:  the  excavations  conducted 
in  Palestine  do  not  show  any  Babylonian  influence  in 
the  early  period  of  Israelitish  history,  nor  in  the  pre- 
Israelitish.  In  the  late  Assyrian  period,  when  the 
armies  of  that  nation  again  and  again  overran  the  land, 
when  Assyrian  officials  in  many  cases  were  set  over 
cities  and  put  into  control  of  affairs,  it  is  perfectly 
natural  that  traces  of  the  Assyrians  should  be  discovered ; 
especially  when  we  know  that  towns  were  repeopled 
with  Assyrians  after  the  natives  were  carried  into  exile. 
While  proofs  depending  upon  antiquities  discovered 
up  to  the  present  which  show  such  an  occupation  are 
exceedingly  slight,  it  is  perfectly  proper  to  expect,  if 
certain  cities  are  excavated,  to  hear  at  any  time  of  the 
finding  of  many  importations  from  Assyria,  such  as 
arms,  utensils,  seals,  etc.  But,  as  stated  above,  these 
will  be  found  to  belong  to  the  time  when  Assyria  was 
the  dominant  power  in  Western  Asia. 

After  surveying  the  results  of  the  excavations  con- 
ducted in  Palestine  we  must,  therefore,  agree  with 
Nowack,  who  in  his  review*  of  the  work  of  Schumacher 
and  Steuernagel  at  Tel  el-Mutesselim  (1908),  takes 
issue  with  those  who  claim  predominant  influence  of 
Babylonian  culture  in  Palestine  from  the  third  mil- 
lennium on.  He  says :  "  It  is  a  disturbing  but  irrefutable 
fact  that  until  down  to  the  fifth  stratum — i.e.,  to  the 


*  Theol.  Literaturzeitung,  1908,  No.  20. 


INTRODUCTORY    REMARKS  27 

beginning  of  the  eighth  century — important  Assyrian 
influences  do  not  assert  themselves."  "It  is  most 
significant  that  in  Megiddo  not  a  single  idol  {Gotteshild) 
from  the  Assyrian-Babylonian  Pantheon  has  been 
found.''  "Some  proofs  of  Assyrian-Babylonian  in- 
fluence are  first  met  in  the  fifth  and  sixth  stratum; 
while  this  is  limited,  so  far  as  I  can  see,  to  the  seals 
found  there. "^ 

On  the  other  hand,  the  relations  with  Egypt  are 
shown  by  the  antiquities  discovered  to  have  existed 
as  early  as  the  twelfth  dynasty;  and  much  evidence 
has  been  secured  to  prove  that  the  Semites  in  Canaan 
were  strongly  influenced  from  that  quarter.  This  is 
not  surprising  because  of  the  proximity  of  Egypt, 
and,  as  regards  Israel,  because  the  Hebrews  for  centuries 
lived  in  that  land;  but  it  fails  to  substantiate  the 
completely  Babylonian  nature  of  Canaanitish  civili- 
zation in  the  centuries  before  the  Exodus,  or  in  fact 
at  any  other  time. 

This  predominance  of  Egyptian  influence  as  against 
the  Babylonian  is  well  established  in  the  art  as  repre- 
sented upon  the  seal  cylinders  coming  from  this  district. 
Sellings  excavations  at  Tell  Ta'annek  show  that  the 
Palestinians  imported  seal  cylinders  from  Babylonia,  but 
engraved  upon  them  Egyptian  hieroglyphic  symbols. 
In  the  seals  which  came  from  Phoenicia,  including  Pales- 
tine and  the  Hauran — in  other  words,  the  Amorite  land,  or 

*  See  Vincent,  Canaan  d'aprcs  V exploration  recente,  pp.  341,  439, 
and  Cooke,  The  Religion  of  Ancient  Palestine,  p.  112  f. 


28      AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

the  land  called  Amurru  in  these  discussions — ^the  Egyp- 
tian influence  is  predominant  as  early  as  the  third  millen- 
nium B.C.  Such  elements  as  the  Egyptian  hawk,  apron, 
crux  ansata,  papyrus  flower,  lion  sphynx,  vulture,  etc., 
are  much  in  evidence.^ 

As  set  forth  in  Part  II,  on  Amurru  in  the  West 
Semitic  Inscriptions,  the  excavations  by  Macalister  and 
others  in  Palestine  point  to  the  fact  that  the  dominant 
people  in  the  Westland,  whom  we  call  Amorites,  in  the 
millennium  preceding  the  time  of  Moses,  were  Semites; 
and  further,  as  shown  in  Part  II,  on  Amurru  in  the 
Cuneijorm  Inscriptions,  there  are  evidences  which  deter- 
mine that  in  the  earliest  known  historical  period  the 
Amorite  culture  was  already  fully  developed,  and  that  it 
played  an  important  role  in  influencing  other  peoples. 
Very  appropriately,  therefore,  inquiry  should  be  made 
whether  the  Egyptian  inscriptions  throw  any  light  upon 
the  question.  Do  they  show  that  there  was  a  culture  in 
that  land  in  the  early  period?  If  so,  was  it  a  Semitic 
culture?  And  finally,  are  there  any  evidences  that  this 
culture  influenced  other  peoples? 

'A-ma-ra  or  'A-mu-ra  in  the  Egyptian  inscriptions  is 
known  as  a  geographical  term,  and  refers  to  the  Lebanon 
region.  It  may  even  include  the  coast,  being  a  vague 
term  for  central  Syria.  The  race  of  the  Amorites, 
according  to  the  Egyptian  pictures,  is  Semitic,  and  in  no 


'  See  Ward,  Cylinders  and  other  Ancient  Seals  in  the  Library  of 
J.  Pierpont  Morgan,  p.  89. 


INTRODUCTORY    REMARKS  29 

way  distinguished  from  the  other  inhabitants  of  southern 
and  middle  Syria.  ^ 

The  monuments  of  Egypt  not  only  furnish  ample 
evidence  to  prove  that  the  civilization  of  Syria-Palestme 
is  Semitic,  and  is  as  old  as  that  of  Egypt/  but,  on  the 
authority  of  Prof.  W.  M.  Miiller,  it  may  be  stated  that 
the  beginnings  of  civilization  in  the  Nile  valley  seem  to 
have  been  extensively  influenced  by  the  Western  Semites. 
Contrary  to  the  views  of  most  Semitists,  who  have  fol- 
lowed the  writer  of  the  Egyptian  "  Prunkinschriften/' 
which  misrepresents  the  Asiatics  by  describing  them  as 
miserable,  hungry,  dirty  "sand  wanderers,"  or  the 
Sinuhe  novel,  which  endeavors  to  give  the  impression 
that  the  people  of  Palestine  were  in  a  state  of  barbarism 
2000  B.C.,  Prof.  Miiller  maintains  that  in  the  districts  of 
arable  land  the  people  were  agricultural,  and  had 
attained  a  fair  degree  of  civilization.  The  Egyptian 
pictures  of  the  nomadic  or  half  nomadic  traders  and  mer- 
cenaries coming  to  Egypt  at  that  time  show  their  skill 
in  metal  working  and  weaving.  Remarkable  weapons 
and    handsomely    decorated    garments    are    depicted. 

*  This  I  leam  on  the  authority  of  Prof.  W.  M.  Muller.  The  com- 
parison made  by  Prof.  Sayce,  Patriarchal  Palestine,  p.  48,  with  the 
Libyan  type  (which  strongly  resembles  the  Semitic  type)  was  based 
on  a  father  poor  picture  of  "the  prince  of  'A-ma-ra"  (L,  D.,  209,  or 
Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.,  p.  143,  etc. ;  also  Petrie,  Racial  Types).  Better 
pictures  of  the  Amoiites,  who  are  always  represented  as  Semites, 
are  to  be  found  in  Sethos  I  attacking  "the  land  of  Qadesh  of  the  land 
of  Amar"  (Rosellini,  Mon.  Stor.,  p.  53;  or  Champollion,  Monuments, 
p.  295);  and  also  the  picture  of  the  prince  of  that  city  in  W.  M. 
Muller,  Egyptol.  Researches,  II,  pi.  7. 

2  See  Muller,  Onen.  Ldt.  Zeit.,  XI,  p.  403. 


30      AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

Already  at  this  time  a  papyrus  speaks  of  Pharaoh's 
messengers  going  to  Syria  with  inscribed  bricks  tied  in 
their  loin  cloths.^  This  gives  us  an  earlier  date  for  the 
ase  of  the  cuneiform  script  in  Egypt  and  Western  Asia. 
Pharaoh  Pepy,  about  2500  B.C.,  describes  his  Asiatic 
enemies  as  largely  agricultural,  and  living  in  strongly 
fortified  cities.  It  would  seem  that  some  of  the  walls  of 
their  cities  were  no  less  than  fifty  feet  high.^  The 
adoption  of  Syrian  loan  words  shows  powerful  influence 
exercised  by  the  Semites  on  Egypt  before  3000  B.C.^ 
Even  prior  to  Menes  this  Semitic  civilization  played  an 
important  part  in  the  development  of  Egyptian  culture. 
Prof.  Miiller  further  informs  me  that,  according  to 
linguistic  and  racial  indications,  in  the  earliest  time  no 
other  than  the  Semite  appears  to  have  lived  in  the 
Amurru  region,  where  he  became  sedentary  and  agricul- 
tural as  early  as  the  Egyptian  in  the  Nile  valley.^ 

In  this  connection  a  word  is  appropriate  with  refer- 
ence to  the  influence  of  Babylonian  and  Sumerian  civil- 
ization upon  Egypt.  There  is  little  doubt  that  the 
Sumerian  culture  will  eventually  be  shown  to  have 
existed  at  a  much  earlier  date  than  thus  far  ascertained 
by  the  excavations  in  Babylonia.  But  to  call  Egyptian 
civilization  a  branch  of  the  Babylonian,  or  Sumerian, 
seems  to  be  a  statement  without  support.  Contrary  to 
the  claims  of  Prof.  Hommel,  although  it  is  quite  likely 

*  See  Muller,  Orien.  Lit.  ZeiL,  IV,  p.  8. 

^  Petrie,  Deshasheh,  pi.  4,  represents  an  Asiatic  city  stormed  by 
Egyptians  in  the  5th  dynasty. 

'^  See  Muller,  Orien.  Lit.  Zeit.,  X,  p.  403. 


INTRODUCTORY    REMARKS  31 

that  the  beginnings  (jf  Egyptian  civilization  were  brought 
from  Asia,  not  a  single  Sumerian  loan  word  has  been 
shown  to  exist  in  Egyptian,  and  yet  the  Sumerian 
continued  in  use  as  late  as  2000  B.C.,  and  the  Babylonian 
language  was  extensively  a  mixture  of  the  Sumerian  and 
the.  Semitic.  The  elements  of  culture  that  migrated 
from  Babylonia  or  Shumer  to  Egypt  must  have  first 
been  adopted  by  the  Semitic  inhabitants  of  Syria,  and 
transmitted  by  them.  Naturally,  this  forces  us  to  regard 
the  barbarous  Syrian  of  this  early  age  in  another  light. 
And  it  also  forces  us  to  realize  that  the  references  to 
Amurru  in  the  oldest  cuneiform  inscriptions  are  indica- 
tions of  the  correctness  of  the  contentions  for  the  early 
civilization  of  that  land.  In  short,  all  this  attests  the 
credibility  of  the  claims  made  on  the  basis  of  the  Pales- 
tinian excavations  and  other  researches,  that  an  ancient 
Semitic  people,  with  a  not  inconsiderable  civilization, 
lived  in  Amurru  prior  to  the  time  of  Abraham. 

It  is  well  known  that  Babylonian  and  Sumerian 
rulers  in  the  earliest  known  historical  period — ^that  is, 
in  the  third  and  fourth  millenniums  before  Christ — 
conquered  and  held  in  subjection  the  land  of  Syria  and 
Palestine.  In  this  period  Gudea  is  found  importing 
Iraiestone,  alabaster,  cedars,  etc.,  from  the  West,  even 
gold  from  the  Sinaitic  peninsula.  A  succession  of 
Babylonian  rulers  claimed  suzerainty  over  this  land 
until  it  fell  into  the  hands  of  Elam.  With  the  over- 
throw of  that  land,  Amurru  (Palestine  and  Syria)  came 
again  into  the  possession  of  Babylonia  in  Hammurabi 's 
time.  Later,  during  the  eighteenth  dynasty  of  Egypt, 
it  is  found  in  the  control  of  the  Pharaohs. 


32       AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

The  military  conquest  and  enforced  subjection  of 
the  country  for  such  a  long  period  resulted  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  Babylonian  language  and  script  as  the 
official  tongue  of  the  entire  district  controlled,  as  well 
as  of  other  parts  of  Western  Asia  and  Egypt.  The 
ability  to  master  this  complicated  and  difficult  system 
of  writing,  many  have  thought,  speaks  volumes  for  the 
intelligence  of  the  civilized  peoples  of  Western  Asia. 
Education  of  scribes  must  have  been  widely  spread; 
for  the  learned  knew  how  to  write  this  cumbersome 
ideographic  and  phonetic  script  of  the  Babylonians. 
We  find  the  Hittite.  the  Mitanna'an,  the  Egyptian,  the 
Amorite,  and  other  peoples  using  it;  but  the  Hebrews, 
who  have  handed  down  a  literature  of  a  very  high  order, 
purporting  to  deal  with  and  to  come  from  this  period,* 
we  are  informed  by  critics,  were  micivilized  or 
semi-barbarous  nomads;  not  that  any  evidences  of 
an  archaeological  or  any  other  character  have  been 
produced  in  substantiation  of  this  view,  but  simply 
because  their  theories  demand  such  conclusions. 

Perhaps  the  most  important  argument  used  by 
scholars  to  show  the  influence  of  Babylonia  upon 
Canaan  has  been  the  fact  that  among  the  tablets  dis- 
covered at  Tel  el-Amarna,  in  Egypt,  two  Babylonian 
epics  were  recovered.  This  fact  also  furnished  a  defi- 
nite time  when  the  supposcnl  Babylonian  influence  was 
exerted  upon  Canaan.     One  of  these  myths  contains 

*  The  writer  is  one  of  the  small  minority  who  believes  that 
Hohraic  (or  Amoraic)  litoratiiro,  as  well  as  Aramaic,  has  a  great 
antiquity  prior  to  the  first  millennium  B.C. 


INTRODUCTORY    REMARKS  33 

what  is  known  as  the  Adapa  legend,  and  the  other 
refers  to  Ereshkigal,  the  consort  of  the  god  Nergal,  and  her 
messenger  Namtar.  These,  as  has  been  inferred,  were 
used  as  text-books  in  learning  the  language,  as  is 
shown  by  the  fact  that  they  were  interpunctuated, 
the  words  being  separated  by  marks  made  with  ink, 
in  order  to  facilitate  their  study. 

It  seems  the  finding  of  these  so-called  Babylonian 
myths  in  Egypt  offers  no  better  proof  for  the  influence 
of  Babylonian  ideas  upon  the  cults  of  the  West  than 
the  discovery  of  text-books  in  French  at  the  present 
time  upon  one  of  the  islands  of  the  Pacific  would  show 
influence  from  France  upon  the  cult  of  the  inhabitants. 
It  would,  knowing  certain  facts,  show  that  both  lan- 
guages were  used  for  diplomatic  and  social  intercourse 
between  nations;  the  former  in  the  second  millennium 
before  Christ,  and  the  latter  in  the  nineteenth  and 
twentieth  centuries  of  the  Christian  era;  but  until  it  can 
be  shown  that  the  people  of  the  Western  lands  actually 
adopted  or  assimilated  Babylonian  myths  or  religious 
ideas  (many  of  which  the  writer  holds  are  Western), 
no  such  far-reaching  conclusions,  based  upon  the  theory 
that  when  Israel  entered  Canaan  all  these  Babylonian 
ideas  were  a  part  of  the  mental  possession  of  the  people, 
can  be  maintained.  Discoveries  in  Egypt,  Phoenicia, 
or  any  other  nation  of  the  West  do  not  show  traces  of 
this  influence.  These  nations  had  cults  of  their  own, 
showing  a  long  history  of  development,  prior  to  the 
Amarna  period.  Moreover,  Israel,  entering  Canaan 
about  that  time,  surely  was  not  in  a  position  and  in  a 
3 


34      AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

frame  of  mind  to  select  from  the  older  and  current 
beliefs  what  should  constitute  her  faith.  The  cult  of 
the  Israelites  grew  up  under  unconscious  influences 
quietly  at  work  during  the  generations  which  preceded, 
reaching  far  back  into  the  ages.  It  is,  however,  quite 
reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  culture  of  Canaan  had  more 
or  less  influence  in  one  way  or  another  upon  Israel.  It  is 
not  improbable  also  that  the  Kenites  with  whom  Moses 
sojourned,  and  with  whom  Israel  came  into  contact, 
influenced  the  Hebrew  cult,  but  to  what  extent  can 
be  determined  only  when  we  know  more  about  their 
civilizations. 

Naturally,  if  it  is  assumed  that  the  Babylonians 
were  the  only  people  who  had  a  religion  in  that  era  in 
Western  Asia,  the  theory  would  appear  more  reasonable. 
But,  of  course,  this  cannot  be  maintained.  Philology 
and  archaeology  have  extended  our  horizon,  so  that 
our  conception  of  the  civilizations  of  that  age  is  that 
they  were  of  a  highly  developed  character.  With  the 
Amorites  and  Aramaeans  in  the  North,  the  Egyptians 
and  Arabians  in  the  South,  as  well  as  the  old  Amorite 
culture  in  the  land  which  they  occupied,  it  seems 
imreasonable  to  assume  such  a  wholesale  dependence 
upon  far-off  Babylonian  culture,  simply  because  in 
certain  periods  Amurru  was  under  the  control  of  Baby- 
lon, or  because  certain  literature,  some  of  which  is 
Western,  has  been  preserved  for  us  by  reason  of  the  fact 
that  it  was  written  upon  clay,  whereas  most  of  the  other 
nations  wrote  on  perishable  material ;  and  also  because 
two  practically  indestructible    tablets    containing    so- 


INTRODUCTORY    REMARKS  35 

called  Babylonian  myths  happened  to  have  been  found 
in  Egypt.  On  the  contrary,  as  the  discussion  pro- 
ceeds, we  shall  see  how  Babylonia  was  invaded  by  West 
Semitic  peoples  who  carried  their  culture  thither. 

It  must  be  acknowledged  that  the  Hebrew,  during 
the  many  ages  of  his  history,  has  been  peculiarly  subject 
to  the  influences  of  his  environment.  A  notable  char- 
acteristic of  the  race  is  the  adaptability  of  the  people  to 
their  surroundings.  But  here  we  should  also  recall  that 
Herodotus  said  that  the  Persians  more  easily  than 
others  adopted  foreign  customs.  The  influence  of 
Babylonia  upon  the  habits  and  life  of  Israel  after  the 
exile  is  well  recognized.  But  even  this  is  greatly  over- 
estimated, for  many  things  that  are  actually  Aramaean 
have  been  regarded  as  Babylonian.  Persian  and  Hel- 
lenic influences  also  are  recognized.  We  must  not 
fail  to  remember,  however,  that  during  these  periods 
the  nation  was  disorganized.  But  still,  in  the  pre-exilic 
period  we  have  only  to  read  the  prophets  and  the  codes, 
to  see  how  susceptible  Israel  apparently  was  to  the 
influences  at  work  about  them,  and  how  prone  the 
people  were  to  wander. 

We  also  learn  that  the  high  standard  required  by 
the  codes  was  in  many  points  not  realized,  so  that  pre- 
cept and  practise  were  widely  separated.  There  seems 
to  have  taken  place,  in  many  instances,  what  may  prop- 
erly be  called  an  accommodation  to  the  actual  practises  of 
the  people,  which  crept  into  Israel  in  spite  of  the  efforts 
of  the  leaders  to  keep  them  out.  Moreover,  it  would 
be  unfair  to  the  ancient  lawgiver,  and  to  the  leaders 


36      AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

of  Israel,  if  we  acknowledged  that  the  cult  itself  was 
even  subject  to  modification  as  the  people  became 
acquainted  with  or  were  influenced  by  the  practises  of 
their  environment. 

Gunkel  holds  that  "  as  long  as  the  Israelitic  religion 
was  in  its  vigor  it  assimilated  actively  this  foreign 
material;  in  later  times,  when  the  religion  had  become 
relaxed  in  strength,  it  swallowed  foreign  elements, 
feathers  and  all.''  If  this  statement  of  the  readiness 
of  Israel  to  assimilate,  in  such  a  wholesale  manner,  the 
ideas  of  foreign  peoples  depends  upon  what  has  been 
shown  to  have  been  actually  assimilated  in  the  late  period, 
the  verdict  must  be,  it  rests  upon  weak  premises. 

That  Delitzsch,  in  his  Bahel  und  Bihel  lectures,  "  is 
right  in  calling  Canaan  at  the  time  of  the  Exodus  a 
domain  of  Babylonian  culture,"  is  a  statement  most 
difficult  to  understand  in  the  light  of  the  known 
facts.  If  it  were  true,  should  we  not  expect  the 
chief  deity  of  the  Babylonians  to  figure  prominently  in 
the  West?  If  the  mfluence  of  the  Babylonian  religion 
upon  the  West  were  as  great  as  is  asserted  by  scholars, 
should  we  not  expect  to  find  in  the  early  literature  of 
that  land,  for  instance,  the  name  of  Marduk,  who  for 
lialf  a  millennium  prior  to  the  Exodus  had  been  the 
head  of  the  Babylonian  pantheon?  This  name  was 
used  extensively  in  the  nomenclature, — ^the  name 
above  all  names,  the  god  that  had  absorbed  the  attri- 
butes and  prerogatives  of  all  other  gods.  Surely,  if  the 
influence  was  so  extensive  upon  the  West,  we  ought  to 
find   the   name   Marduk   figuring   prominently   in   the 


INTRODUCTORY    REMARKS  37 

Amarna   letters,   in   the   Ta'annek   inscriptions,  in  the 
Cappadocian    tablets    published    by    Delitzsch,  Sayce, 
and  Pinches,  and  in  the  portions  of  the  Old  Testament 
belonging  to  the  early  period.     But,  with  one  exception 
in  the  Amarna  letters,  where  is  the  name?    The  argu- 
ment e  silentio  is  unscientific,  but  this  silence  at  least 
is  most  significant.     And  where  is  the  epithet  of  Marduk, 
namely,  Bel,  which  was  taken  from  Ellil?    According 
to  the  revision  of  the   Amarna  texts  by    Knudtzon, 
the  only  occurrence  is  the   questionable  [B]e-[e]l-[sh]a' 
a[m}-m[al  every  character  of  which  is  in  doubt.     And 
where  is  the  name  Ellil  in  these  letters,^  from  whom 
the  title  Bel  was  taken,  except  in  the  name  of  Kadash- 
man-Ellil,  the    Babylonian  ruler?     Ellil  is  the  lord  of 
lands,  to  whom  the  rulers  of  the  country,  ancient  as  well 
as  modern,  did  obeisance  at  the  great  Nippurian  sanc- 
tuary, and  whose  name  figures  so  prominently  as  an 
Element  in  personal  names.     Why,  it  can  properly  be 
asked,  is  the  mention  of  this  deity  (who  was  considered 
by  the  Assyrians  to  be  the  god  par  excellence  of  the 
Babylonians)  not  found  in  Palestine?     In  the  mscrip- 
tions  of  the  Cassite  period,  Nusku  is  a  most  important 
deity  in  the  nomenclature.     At  Nippur  the  name  of 
Nusku,  together  with  that  of  Ellil  and  NIN-IB,  is  used 
in  the  oath  formula;  but  where  is  this  deity  found  in  the 
literature  of  Canaan  of  this  period?    The  same  is  true 
of  Nergal,  the  god  of  Cutha,  with  the  exceptions  of  the 
Babylonian  myth  found  in  Egypt.     Nergal's  name  in 

^  A  certain  Ellil-bdni  occurs   in    the  Cappadocian  tablets  pub- 
lished by  Savce,  and  by  Pinches. 


38      AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

the  Cassite  period  is  also  extensively  used  in  the  nomen- 
clature/ In  a  tablet  found  at  Tell  el-Amarna  from  Ala- 
shia,  which  is  supposed  to  be  Cyprus,  a  god  MASH-MASH 
occurs,  which  has  been  read  Nergal,  but  for  which  a 
better  reading  would  be  LUGAL  Urra,  "King  Uru/' 
which  is  equivalent  to  Nergal,  but  which  is  one  of  the 
names  in  the  inscriptions  for  the  great  solar  deity  of 
the  West  (see  Part  II).  And  where  is  NIN-LIL  or 
Nand  or  Bdu  or  GU-LA  or  any  other  form  of  the  goddess 
Ishtar  found?  Only  in  the  letters  from  Mitanni,  which 
is  north  of  and  in  proximity  to  Assyria,  does  the  name 
Ishtar  occur.  Instead,  we  find  Ashirta  or  Ashratij 
which  is  the  name  of  the  goddess  indigenous  to  the 
land. 

Among  the  deities  in  the  Amarna  letters,  the  Baby- 
lonian writing  IB  and  NIN-IB  are  found;  but,  as  we 
shall  see  in  Part  II,  these  are  cuneiform  signs  which 
probably  stood  for  the  West  Semitic  Eshu  and  the  Ba  'cd 
of  Amurru  or  Mdshu.  In  other  words,  they  represent 
deities  or  epithets  of  the  solar  god  or  gods  of  the  land 
in  which  the  letters  were  written,  namely,  Amurru. 
Shamash,  Adad,  Vru,  Dagan,  etc.,  are  also  found,  but, 
as  we  shall  see,  the  West  is  their  proper  habitat.  In 
Part  II  it  will  be  shown  that  Marduk,  Nergal,  and  other 
deities  are  Amoritish.  Then  an  explanation  why 
these  names  are  not  found  in  the  early  literature  of  the 
West  is  in  order.  As  we  shall  see  in  Part  II,  while 
they  are  West  Semitic,  they  represent  originally  only 

»  See  Qay,  B.  E.,  XIV  and  XV. 


INTRODUCTORY    REMARKS  39 

different  forms  of  the  same  name  of  the  same  solar 
deity  of  the  West;  and  that  these  different  writings 
ajose  in  different  centers  through  the  adoption  of  the 
cuneiform  script  of  the  Sumerians,  whose  scribes  were 
the  first  to  write  upon  clay  for  the  Semites  who 
entered  the  Tigro-Euphrates  valley.  The  very  absence 
of  these  names,  generally  speaking,  is  proof  that  the 
theory  advanced  is  correct;  although  it  is  most  sur- 
prising that  sporadic  occurrences  of  Babylonian  names 
compounded  with  these  elements  in  the  names  of  the 
West,  like  Ellil-hdni  in  the  Cappadocian  tablets,  should 
not  be  found.  From  this  point  of  view,  therefore,  it 
must  be  acknowledged  that  the  dependence  of  Canaan 
upon  Babylonia  in  the  period  of  the  Exodus  is  grossly 
exaggerated.  If  the  same  claim  had  been  made  for  the 
Hittites,  more  evidence  would  be  found  in  the  Amarna 
letters  to  substantiate  it.  Let  me  repeat,  the  argumen- 
tum  e  silentio  is  precarious,  but  when  in  the  nomen- 
clature of  Babylonia  the  Hittite,  the  Mitannsean,  and 
other  West  Semitic  influences  are  so  apparent,  we  have 
every  right  to  expect  to  find  traces  of  Babylonian 
influence,  if  what  scholars  have  claimed  is  more  than  a  con- 
jecture. Afresh  discovery  may  produce  some  of  the  re- 
quired data,  but  still  the  position  taken  by  the  Pan-Baby- 
lon ists  cannot  be  maintained,  for  the  evidence  against  it 
from  many  points  of  view  is  overwhelming. 

It  has  been  asserted  that  the  Babylonian  rule  having 
been  extended  over  this  land  by  military  conquest, 
not  only  the  general  culture  and  the  alien  language  was 
enforced  upon  the  people,  but  also  the  Babylonian  sys- 


40      AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

tern  of  law.  Hammurabi  having  been  suzerain  over 
Amurru,  it  was  quite  natural  to  suppose  that  this  great 
lawgiver  established  his  laws  there  as  well  as  in  Baby- 
lonia, but  this  does  not  seem  to  have  been  the  case. 
We  find  interesting  parallels  of  customs  practised  among 
the  patriarchs,  as,  for  instance,  the  adoption  of  his  ser- 
vant, Eliezer,  by  Abraham;  Sarah's  giving  Hagar  to 
her  husband  for  wife,  and  the  subsequent  treatment  of 
her;  Rachel  giving  her  handmaid  Bilhah  to  Jacob  for 
wife,  etc. 

While  there  are  no  parallels  for  these  practises  in 
the  Mosaic  law,  the  existence  of  such  Babylonian  customs 
in  the  case  of  Abraham  and  his  immediate  clan  is 
exactly  what  we  should  have  expected;  for  he  and  his 
family  had  lived  in  Babylonia.  It  is,  therefore,  not 
necessary  on  account  of  these  facts  to  assume  that 
Hammurabi  established  his  laws  in  Palestine.  In 
truth,  these  very  facts  are  merely  interesting  and  impor- 
tant exceptions,  assuring  us  that  we  have  a  veritable 
historical  personage  in  the  patriarch  to  deal  with,  and 
not  the  creation  of  a  Hebrew  fiction  writer.  His  early 
life  was  spent  in  Babylonia,  where  he  received  his  edu- 
cation. His  emigration  to  Palestine  and  residence  there 
as  a  shaykh  among  his  people — a  law  unto  himself — would 
not  require  us  to  suppose  that  he  had  forgotten  his 
early  training,  and  especially  with  reference  to  affairs  of 
everyday  life.  At  the  same  time,  it  would  be  unreason- 
able to  suppose  that  the  laws  of  Canaan  were  influ- 
enced by  this  petty  shaykh,  who  we  are  told  could 
gather  only  three  hundred  and  eighteen   men,   which 


INTRODUCTORY    REMARKS  41 

included  those  of  several  allies,  when  he  went  to  recover 
Lot.  Naturally,  his  own  tribe,  perhaps  for  generations, 
was  more  or  less  influenced  by  this  Babylonian  heritage ; 
but  contact  for  four  or  five  centuries  with  the  laws  of 
Palestine,  Egypt,  and  other  lands  gradually  effaced 
the  traces  of  this  influence,  as  is  evident  by  a  comparison 
of  Babylonian  laws  with  the  Mosaic  code. 

There  are  laws  in  both  codes  which  are  parallel. 
The  lex  talionis  is  comnion  to  both;  but  this  continues 
to  exist  in  Oriental  lands  at  the  present  time,  and  doubt- 
less will  be  found  in  other  ancient  Semitic  codes  that  may 
be  discovered.  Without  taking  into  consideration  the 
laws  arising  from  this  barbarous  law  of  retaliation, 
those  which  are  similar  can  all  be  explained  as  coinci- 
dences which  have  arisen  from  similar  conditions. 
Even  a  common  origin  for  both  cannot  be  proved. 
Not  a  few  scholars  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
points  of  agreement  are  due  to  independent  develop- 
ment from  the  same  primitive  customs.^ 

Not  only  is  it  claimed  that  the  people  of  the  West 
adopted  the  language,  the  culture,  the  religion,  and  the 
laws  of  Babylonia,  but  that  the  literature  was  also 
absorbed  as  its  own.  The  early  stories  in  Grcnesis  of 
the  Creation,  Sabbath,  antediluvian  patriarchs,  and 
the  Deluge  have  furnished  the  principal  material  for 
the  support  of  this  theory.  Under  these  several  heads 
this  question  will  be  discussed. 

^  For  a  fuller  discussion  of  the  question  as  to  whether  the  Mosaic 
code  is  dependent  upon  the  Hammurabi,  see  the  writer's  Light  on 
the  Old  Testament  from  Babel,  p.  223  ff. 


42      AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

It  is  not  my  desire  to  attempt  to  minimize  the  influ- 
ences from  the  Tigi-o-Euphrates  valley  upon  the  culture 
of  the  neighboring  nations  in  general,  including  Israel. 
Unquestionably  such  a  civilization  as  the  Sumerian, 
which,  as  far  as  we  know,  was  highly  developed  as  early 
as  the  fifth  millennium  B.C.,  and  also  the  Assyro- 
Babylonian,  exerted  an  influence  upon  neighboring 
peoples.  What  that  influence  was  upon  the  center  of  the 
Semites  from  which  the  Semitic  Babylonians  came,  of 
course,  is  a  different  question.  It  is  well  to  bear  in  mind 
that  while  the  Sumerians,  on  the  one  hand,  greatly 
influenced  the  Semitic  culture  which  was  brought  into 
the  country,  the  Semites,  on  the  other,  had  a  great 
influence  upon  the  Sumerians — not  so  much  in  their  art 
as  in  their  culture  in  general,  for  the  Semite  seems  to 
have  had  little  art  worth  imitating.  By  taking  this  more 
into  accoimt  it  is  not  improbable  that  many  of  the  diffi- 
culties brought  to  light  by  the  Halevy  school  will  find 
their  solution,  for  it  is  evident  that  the  Semitic  hordes, 
as  they  are  called,  which  came  into  Babylonia  greatly 
influenced  the  culture  of  that  land.  But  beyond  such 
influences  as  are  due  to  commercial  relations,  and  perhaps 
the  script,  it  does  not  appear  that  the  culture  of  Amurru, 
according  to  all  that  we  know  from  the  excavations  and 
the  monuments,  was  modified  by  Babylonian  forces.  In 
short,  a  careful  consideration  of  the  data  at  our  dis- 
posal confirms  the  contention  that  many  extravagant 
statements  have  been  made  concerning  the  indebtedness 
of  Israel  and  the  Western  Semites  to  Babylonia. 

Farther  North  it  is  apparent  that  the  contact  between 


INTRODUCTORY    REMARKS  43 

the  Hittite  and  the  Babylonian  culture  was  closer. 
Whether  the  peoples  will  ultimately  be  shown  to  have 
had  intimate  relations  with  one  another  remains  to  be 
determined.  Mutual  influences,  however,  are  shown  by 
a  study  of  the  art.*  The  Babylonian  influence  upon  that 
region  is  also  apparent  in  the  so-called  Cappadocian 
tablets,  as  well  as  in  the  inscriptions  from  Mitanni.  The 
influences  from  Babylonia  or  Shumer  which  found  their 
way  into  Europe,  doubtless,  were  largely  transmitted 
through  the  medium  of  these  peoples  in  Asia  Minor .^ 
In  fact  we  are  justified  in  looking  for  influences,  at  least 
in  orthography,  among  all  the  nations  that  adopted  the 
Babylonian  script  for  their  own  language.  This  would 
include  a  people  like  the  Amorites,  in  so  far  as  they 
adopted  the  cimeiform  script  for  their  own  language. 

*  See  Ward,  Cylinders  and  other  Ancient  Seals  in  the  Library  of 
J.  Pierpont  Morgan,  p.  93,  who  finds  Babylonian  influences  on  the 
seal  cylinders  classed  definitely  as  Hittites.  This  region  he  claims 
also  gave  in  return  more  than  one  deity  to  the  Babylonian  pantheon. 

^  An  interesting  illustration  of  this  is  the  Babylonian  origin  of  the 
Platonic  number,  12,960,000,  which  has  been  demonstrated  by 
Aures  and  Adam,  and  recently  discussed  by  Hilprecht,  in  Babylonian 
Expedition,  Vol.  XX,  pt.  1,  and  by  Barton,  "On  the  Babylonian 
Origin  of  Plato's  Number,"  Journal  American  Oriental  Society,  Vol. 
29,  p.  210. 


CREATION  STORY 


It  is  a  widely  current  theory  that  the  cosmology  of 
the  Hebrews,  as  reflected  in  Genesis  1-2  :  4a,  as  well 
as  in  the  prophets  and  in  the  poetic  productions  of 
Israel,  was  borrowed  from  the  Babylonians;  or,  as  an 
eminent  scholar  has  expressed  himself,  "in  fact, 
no  archaeologist  questions  that  the  biblical  cosmog- 
ony, however  altered  in  form  and  stripped  of  its 
original  polytheism,  is  in  its  main  outlines  derived 
from  Babylonia."*  Certain  scholars,  however,  while 
assigning  for  literary  reasons  all  the  passages  in  the  Old 
Testament  dealing  with  the  so-called  "  Yahweh-Tehom 
myth,''  in  their  extant  form,  to  a  period  as  late  as  the 
exile,  hold  that  there  was  a  long  development  of  the 
Babylonian  myth  on  Palestine  soil.  Or,  as  another  writer 
puts  it,  the  Hebrew  was  founded  upon  the  Babylonian 
soon  after  the  invasion  of  Canaan.^  "  Yes,"  says  Sayce, 
"the  elements,  indeed,  of  the  Hebrew  cosmology  are  all 
Babylonian;  even  the  creative  word  itself  was  a  Baby- 
lonian conception,  as  the  story  of  Marduk  has  shown 
us."^    Gunkel,  followed  by  others,  assumes  a  dependence 

*  Driver,  Commentary  on  Genesis,  p.  30.  Barton,  in  his  article 
on  "Tiamat, "  Jour.  Amer.  Orien.  Soc,  Vol.  XV,  1-27,  was  one  of 
the  first  writers  to  make  an  extended  comparison  between  the 
Creation  story  of  the  Babylonians  and  Genesis.  See  also  Jastrow, 
Jewish  Quarterly  Review,  1901,  p.  622. 

'  Rogers,  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  p.  139. 

'  Religions  of  Egypt  and  Babylonia,  p.  395. 
44 


CREATION    STORY  45 

of  the  biblical  story  in  Genesis,  including  several  rem- 
nants in  the  Old  Testament,  upon  the  Babylonian;  but 
the  former  was  separated  from  the  latter  by  a  long 
space  of  time.  These  represent  the  views  generally 
adopted  by  writers  on  the  subject,  namely,  that  it 
was  out  of  this  circle  of  influences  that  the  beginning 
of  Israel's  conscious  thinking  about  the  work  of  crea- 
tion arose. 

The  sole  argument  of  value  that  has  been  advanced 
for  the  Babylonian  origin  is,  that  in  purely  Israelite 
environment  it  is  impossible  to  see  how  it  should  have 
been  supposed  that  the  primeval  ocean  alone  existed 
at  the  beginning,  for  the  manner  in  which  the  world 
rises  in  the  Hebraic  story  corresponds  entirely  to  Baby- 
lonian climatic  conditions,  where  in  the  winter  water 
holds  sway  everywhere  until  the  god  of  the  spring  sun 
appears,  who  parts  the  water  and  creates  heaven  and 
earth.  This  cosmology,  it  is  held,  must  therefore 
have  had  its  origin  in  the  alluvial  plains,  such  as  those 
of  Babylonia,  and  not  in  the  land  of  Palestine,  still  less 
in  Syria  or  the  Arabian  desert.  It  also  involves  a 
special  deity  of  spring  or  of  the  morning  sun,  such  as 
Marduk  was,  and  Yahweh  was  not. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  the  fundamental  conceptions 
expressed  in  the  Hebrew  story  are  not  Palestinian  in  color, 
and  that  in  all  probability  they  are  based  upon  a  common 
inheritance.  There  is  a  Sumerian  cosmology,  the  fun- 
damental idea  of  which  is  that  water  is  the  primeval 
element,  ''for  all  the  earth  was  sea."  "In  those  days 
was  built   Eridu,"  which  is  in  the  region  where   the 


46      AMURRU    HOME    OF   NORTHERN    SEMITES 

Hebrews  are  generally  regarded  to  have  placed  Eden, 
"out  of  which  a  river  went,  and  from  thence  it  was  parted 
and  became  mto  four  heads."  The  biblical  cosmology 
not  only  places  Eden  in  an  alluvial  plain,  but  it  recog- 
nizes water  as  the  primeval  element.  These  ideas  were 
held  also  by  the  Egyptians,  Phoenicians  and  others,  and 
it  is  altogether  reasonable  to  assume  that  the  Amorites 
and  Aramaeans  had  something  similar.  In  so  far,  it  must 
be  admitted  that  the  biblical  story  embraces  cosmological 
conceptions  similar  to  those  found  among  the  Sumerians 
and  other  peoples;  but,  as  Pinches  pointed  out/  when  he 
published  this  Sumerian  legend  which  belongs  to  an  in- 
cantation tablet,  nothing  is  said  in  the  fragment  of  a 
conflict  between  Marduk  and  Tiamat,  the  chief  theme 
of  the  Babylonian  legend. 

The  Marduk-Tiamat  myth,  which  belonged  to  the 
Library  of  Ashurbanipal,  is  a  late  and  elaborated  attempt 
to  explain  the  origin  of  things.  The  chief  purpose  of 
the  legend,  as  it  has  been  handed  down,  is  the  glorifica- 
tion of  the  god  Marduk,  who,  as  is  well  known,  absorbed 
the  prerogatives  and  attributes  of  the  other  gods,  after 
Hammurabi  caused  him  to  be  placed  at  the  head  of 
the  Babylonian  pantheon.  That  is  to  say,  it  is  quite 
apparent  that  the  writer  composed  the  work  from 
existing  legends.^ 

Professors  Jastrow,  Sayce,'  and  others  recognize 
two   different   schools   of   thought   represented   in   the 

*  Journal  of  Royal  Asiatic  Society,  1891,  p.  393  ff. 
»  Cf .  Jastrow,  Rel.  of  Bah.  and  Ass.,  p.  407  ff. 
'  Religion  of  Egypt  and  Babylonia,  p.  376. 


CREATION    STORY  47 

myth,    as    is    shown    by    the    attempt    to    harmonize 
two  conflicting  conceptions.     In  the  chaos  symbolized  by 
Tiamat  is  seen  the  relic  of  a  cosmology  which  emanated 
from  Nippur.     This,  it  is  claimed,  was  adopted  and 
combined    with   the   cosmology   of   Eridu    that    made 
water   the   origin   of   all   things.     With  the   Sumerian 
legend,  found  by  Rassam  at  Sippara,  before  us,  which 
doubtless    came    from    Eridu,    it    seems    quite    clear 
that  the  Tiamat  cosmology  is  entirely  independent  of  it. 
But,  contrary  to  the  asserted  claims,  it  cannot  be  said 
to   have   emanated   from   Nippur.     I   can   agree   with 
Professor    Jastrow,  who,   in    assuming   the    composite 
character   of   the   Babylonian  Creation  story,  ^  sees  a 
version  underlying  it  which  represents  a  conflict  between 
Ea   and   Apsu.     This   version,   which   emanated   from 
Eridu,  must  be  viewed  as  the  establishment  of  order 
m  place  of  chaos.     But  I  fail  to  appreciate  the  claim 
made  by  certain  Assyriologists  that  there  is  a  distinct 
version  of  the  episode  which  originated  at  Nippur,  in 
which  Bel  or  Ellil  and  Tiamat  are  the  contestants. 
The  arguments  adduced  in  support  of   the  theory  are 
by  no  means  conclusive.     The  transfer  to  Marduk  of 
the  prerogatives  of   Ellil   cannot  be  used  to  explain 
the  origin  of  all  that  belongs  to  Marduk,  for  that  deity 
had  an  existence  with  proper  attributes  before  Ham- 
murabi conquered  the  Elamites,    and  was  able  to  make 
him  supplant  the  old  hel  mdtati,  ''lord  of  lands.''     This 
transfer  of  titles  is  definitely  set  forth  in  the  myth,  where 


*  See  Noldeke,  Festschrift,  p.  971  ff. 


48      AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

the  compiler,  in  his  efforts  to  glorify  Marduk,  bestows 
upon  him  all  the  attributes  which  belonged  to  other 
deities,  as  well  as  Ellil.  But  the  statement  which  is 
used  to  prove  that  Marduk  supplanted  Ellil  in  this 
conflict  is  not  justified  by  any  known  facts,  namely, 
that  the  description  in  the  fourth  tablet  of  the  equip- 
ment of  the  god — ^that  is,  the  four  winds,  lightning,  the 
storm  chariot,  and  the  storm  weapons — only  fits  Ellil 
of  Nippur,  and  is  totally  incongruous  in  the  case  of 
Marduk,  because  one  is  a  storm-god  and  the  other  a 
solar  deity.  The  argument,  I  repeat,  has  little  or  no 
weight,  for,  as  will  be  seen  below,  Marduk,  the  god  of 
light,  is  also  a  storm-god.^  Adad,  another  representation 
of  a  solar  deity  in  the  West,  is  also  the  god  of  the 
winds  and  storms.  The  Sumerian  Nin-Girsu  is  simi- 
larly a  solar  and  agricultural  deity.  This  is  perfectly 
natural,  as  the  sun  recalls  to  life  the  slumbering  powers 
of  nature;  but  fertility  is  not  only  dependent  upon  the 
sun,  but  also  upon  rain. 

This  conflict  between  Marduk  and  Tiamat,  as  Zim- 
mern^  has  held,  is  manifestly  one  of  light  against  darkness, 
i.e.  the  god  of  light  with  the  god  of  darkness,  while  the 
Sumerian  symbolizes  the  establishment  of  order  out  of 
chaos.  Ellil  was  not  a  god  of  light,  but  a  deity  of  an 
altogether  different  character.  Marduk,  on  the  other 
hand,  is  pre-eminently  a  solar  deity;  and  therefore, 
imtil  some  indisputable  facts  are  produced  to  show 
that  Marduk   is  not  the  original  deity  of  the  legend, 

'  See  Jensen,  K.  B.,  VI,  p.  563. 
'  Encyclopcedia  Bihlica,  col.  73o. 


CREATION    STORY  49 

no  other  view  should  be  countenanced.  Further,  in 
Part  II  it  will  be  shown  that  Marduk  (or  Amar-uiuk)  has 
been  introduced  into  Babylonia  from  the  West. 

Not  only  is  Marduk,  the  god  of  light,  an  importa- 
tion from  the  West,  but  also  Tiamat,  the  mythical 
monster  who  personified  the  sea,  the  god  of  darkness. 
Scholars  have  indeed  assumed  that  the  Hebrew  Tehom, 
translated  "  deep  abyss, ''  was  borrowed  from  the  Baby- 
lonian Tiamat.  The  latter,  in  Babylonian,  is  written  in  a 
form  slightly  different  from  ti  'amtu  or  tamdu,  the  word 
for  "sea,"  perhaps  for  the  purpose  of  differentiation. 
This  name,  as  far  as  published  inscriptions  are  concerned, 
is  confined  to  the  primeval  deity  in  the  Marduk-Tiamat 
legend.  The  root  to  which  this  word,  as  well  as  tdmdu 
meaning  "  sea, "  belongs  does  not  seem  to  be  in  use  in 
Babylonian,  except  in  these  two  words. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  are  several  roots  in  Hebrew 
Din,  'ntyn  and  D.tDH,  which  mean  ''to  make  a  noise, 
to  confuse,  to  discomfit,  to  disquiet,"  to  one  of  which 
Tehom  probably  belongs;  though  it  is  also  possible,  as  De- 
li tzsch*  maintains,  that  there  is  also  a  root  Dnil.  At  the 
same  time  there  are  a  number  of  derivatives,  used  in  con- 
veying ideas  connected  with  "the  deep  sea,  the  abyss,  con- 
fusion, the  primeval  ocean,  the  depth";  in  fact,  there  is  a 
wealth  of  synonyms,  belonging  to  the  very  fiber  of 
the  Hebrew  language  and  thought.  And  yet  scholars 
have  held  that  Israel  borrowed  the  conception  from 
the  Babylonians,  who,  as  far  as  is  known,  simply  used 


Prolegomena,  p.  113. 
4 


50      AMURRU   HOME   OF   NORTHERN    SEMITES 

the  word  tdmdu,  "sesi,"  and  also  Tiamtu  in  this  legend. 
The  chaos  seems  to  be  a  Phoenician  idea  also  (see  below).* 

The  absence  of  the  use  of  the  stem  in  Babylonian, 
as  above  stated,  considered  in  connection  with  these 
facts,  makes  the  hypothesis  that  the  Hebrews  borrowed 
this  idea  from  the  Babylonians  exceedingly  precarious; 
in  fact,  it  is  unreasonable  to  assume  that  the  Hebrew 
Tehom  is  a  modification  of  a  Babylonian  pattern.  The 
deity  furthermore  is  surely  not  Sumerian,  at  least  it  has 
not  been  proved  to  be  such.  To  say,  therefore,  that  the 
origin  of  the  Marduk-Tiamat  myth  is  to  be  found  in  a 
Nippurian  version,  originally  known  as  Ellil-Tiamat, 
is  utterly  without  foundation.  With  our  present 
knowledge,  the  only  conclusion  at  which  we  can  reason- 
ably arrive  is,  that  this  is  an  importation  from  the  West. 

The  art  as  represented  in  the  seal  cylinders  offers  a 
weighty  argument  for  the  comparatively  late  intro- 
duction of  this  myth  into  Assyria.  A  characteristic 
design  of  the  Assjrian  period  of  the  first  millenniuni 
B.C.  is  the  conflict  between  the  deity  of  order  and 
disorder,  which  has  incorporated  certain  elements  from 
the  earlier  cylmders  depicting  the  battle  between 
Gilgamesh  and  wild  beasts.    The  composite  production, 

^  In  Pognon,  Inscriptions  Mandaites  des  coupes  de  Khouabir, 
Nos.  27,  33,  the  word  is  also  found  in  Mandaic,  which  is  an  Aramaic 
dialect.  The  passage  is  X^^xnn  5<'Din  K'pDUO.  Pognon  (p.  65)  sug- 
gests here  a  scribal  error  and  proposes  K'Dnin,  i.e.,  "black,"  but 
Professor  Montgomery,  who  called  my  attention  to  the  passage, 
translates  "in  the  depth,  the  lower  abysses."  That  is  KDID  is  the 
same  as  the  Hebrew  Dinn. 


CREATION   STORY  51 

however,  is  intended  generally  to  portray  the  conflict 
between  Marduk  and  Tiamat,  though  it  is  important  to 
bear  in  mind  that  the  battle  between  Marduk  and 
Tiamat  is  never  represented  in  the  early  Babylonian 
art.^  It  belongs,  as  far  as  we  know,  to  the  Assyrian 
period,  which  therefore  justifies  us  in  seeking  for  the 
origin  of  the  myth  elsewhere  than  in  Babylonia. 

Such  a  conflict,  as  has  been  shown,  is  reflected  in  the 
Old  Testament,  where  Yahweh  put  down  a  power  of 
darkness.  This,  in  fact,  is  a  distinctive  mark  of  Hebrew 
theology  reflected  throughout  the  Old  Testament. 
It  passed  over  into  the  New  Testament,  and  has  become 
the  heritage  of  tho  Christian  Church  in  the  doctrine 
of  the  fallen  angels.  Under  the  guidance  of  a  primeval 
leader,  certain  angels  did  not  persevere  in  wisdom  and 
righteousness,  but  apostatized,  in  consequence  of  which 
the  chief,  together  with  his  followers,  was  banished  to 
the  eternal  desertion  of  God.  Augustine,  it  is  mterest- 
ing  to  note,  mamtained  that  the  fall  of  these  angels 
took  place  during  the  age  represented  by  the  second 
verse  of  Genesis,  although  he  does  not  seem  to  have 
taken  into  consideration  the  passages  in  Job,  Isaiah 
and  the  Psalms  which  refer  to  the  conflict  before  the 
creation  of  the  heavens  and  the  earth  between  Yahweh 
and  this  primeval  power  of  darkness,  under  the  names 
Rahab,  Leviathan,  Dragon  or  Tehom  and  the  "helpers.''^ 


*  Ward,  Cylinders  and  Other  Ancient  Seals  in  the  Library  of  J. 
Pierpont  Morgan,  p.  17. 

'See  Gunkel,  Schopfung  und  Chaos;  Clay,  Light  on  the  Old 
Testament  from  Babel,  p.  69. 


52      AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

The  Israelitish  conception  of  Sin  presupposes  influence 
from  this  primeval  power  of  darkness  and  its  aUies. 
In  Babylonian  demonology  the  lillu,  etimmu,  utukku, 
and  other  destructive  demons  played  an  important 
role,  but  the  knowledge  of  such  a  conflict  between  light 
and  darkness,  or  between  the  god  of  light  and  the  god 
of  darkness,  as  far  as  is  known  in  the  literature  of  Baby- 
lonia, is  confined  to  this  myth. 

Similar  ideas  seem  to  prevail  also  in  the  creation 
story  of  the  Phoenicians.  Eusebius,  who  reproduces 
what  "a  certain  Sanchoniathon  has  handed  down  to 
posterity,  a  very  ancient  author  who  they  testify 
flourished  before  the  Trojan  war,"*  says  the  Phoeni- 
cians believed  ''that  the  beginning  of  all  things  was 
a  dark  and  condensed  windy  air,  or  a  breeze  of  dark  air, 
and  a  chaos  turbid  and  black  as  Erebus."  In  the 
Phoenician  also  Bdao,  i.e.,  "emptiness,"^  figured  as  a 
wife  of  a>efjio<f  xoXma,  from  whom  sprang  the  primeval 
men.  The  nveu/xa,  which  is  the  same  as  the  Hebrew 
rdaj},  in  the  chaos,  also  figured  prominently  in  the 
Phoenician. 

Nor  is  it  strange  that  such  a  conception  as  a  monster 
in  the  figure  of  a  dragon  should  prevail  in  Israelite 
environment,  as  some  have  claimed,  when  we  take  a 
slightly  broader  view  of  the  situation,  and  realize  that 
we  cannot  localize  this  motive  to  certain  inland  cities 
occupied    by    Israel.      Huge    monsters     are    familiar 


*  See  Cory,  Ancient  Fragments,  p.  1. 
'  Cf.  1713  of  Genesis  1  :  2. 


CREATION    STORY  53 

even  now  on  the  coast  of  Amurru.  It  is  only 
necessary  to  refer  to  the  story  of  Jonah,  with  its 
classical  counterpart  in  the  myth  of  Perseus- Andromeda, 
localized  at  Joppa,  to  meet  this  objection.  In  fact, 
according  to  our  present  knowledge,  we  must  conclude 
that  this  idea  is  distinctively  Palestinian,  instead  of 
Babylonian. 

What  is  true  of  Tidmtu  can  be  said  of  other  elements 
m  the  story,  e.g.,  the  deity  Apsu  is  also  West  Semitic. 
As  will  be  seen  in  Part  II,  besides  other  elements  Lafimu 
and  Lajiamu  are  the  same. 

The  composite  character  of  the  Babylonian  Creation 
myth  being  well  established,  and  likewise  that  the  amalga- 
mation of  the  diversified  elements  took  place  some  time 
prior  to  the  establishment  of  Ashurbanipal's  library,  it 
seems  reasonably  certain  that  the  tw^o  cosmologies,  which 
are  clearly  distinguishable,  represent  a  Semitic  myth  com- 
mg  from  the  West,  in  which  Marduk,  the  god  of  light,  is 
arrayed  against  Tiamat,  the  god  of  darkness,  and  a 
Sumerian  myth,  presumably  from  Eridu,  resulting  in 
the  establishment  of  order  by  Ea,  as  against  the  chaos, 
which  is  personified  by  Apsu. 

Scholars  are  mistaken  in  assuming  that  there  has 
been  a  complete  transplanting  of  the  Babylonian  myth 
to  the  soil  of  Yahwism,  or  that  the  author  of  the  biblical 
story  had  before  him  not  only  the  cosmological  system 
of  the  Babylonians,  but  that  particular  form  which  has 
been  incorporated  into  the  Assyrian  epic.  On  the 
contrary,  in  the  light  of  these  discussions,  it  seems 
reasonably  certain  that  the  Western  Semites  who  emi- 


54      AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

grated  to  Babylonia^  carried  their  tradition  with  them 
to  that  land,  which  in  time  was  combined  with  the 
Sumerian,  resulting  in  the  production  discovered  in  the 
library  of  Ashurbanipal. 

'  On  the  movements  from  the  West  to  the  East  m  the  third 
millennium  B.C.,  see  Clay,  Jour.  Amer.  Or.  Soc,  XXVIII,  p.  142  ff., 
and  Ranke,  0.  L.  Z.,  March,  1907.  This  has  been  accepted  by  Meyer, 
Geschichte  des  AUertums^^,  I,  §  436. 


THE  SABBATH 


For  some  years  a  number  of  Assyriologists  who 
have  written  upon  the  Sabbath  of  the  Hebrews  have 
reached  the  conclusion  that  not  only  "  the  word  Sabbath 
is  Babylonian  indeed/'*  but  also  that  the  institution 
originated  in  the  Tigro-Euphrates  valley.  This  is  well 
expressed  in  the  statement,  "the  Sabbath  rest  was 
essentially  of  Babylonian  origin."^  Or,  as  is  asserted 
by  Gunkel:  "The  history  of  religion,  however,  indicates 
that  the  observance  of  such  a  holy  day  is  a  remnant  of 
an  earlier  time  in  the  history  of  religion  when  man 
believed  in  gods,  who  according  to  their  kind  belonged 
to  certain  days."^  Following  are  the  facts  upon  which 
these  conclusions  rest. 

In  Rawlinson,  Inscriptions  of  Western  Asia,  Vol.  II, 
32a-b,  16,  the  equation  sha-pat-tum  =  um  nu-ufi^  lih-hi 
is  found.  This  has  been  translated,  "day  of  rest  of 
the  heart,"  and  was  supposed  to  contain  the  germ 
of  the  Hebrew  Sabbath.  The  word  shapattum,  which 
can  also  be  read  shahattum,  occurs  in  several  syllabaries,* 
and  has  been  explained  by  Professor  Jensen  to  mean 
"appeasement    (of    the    gods),    expiation,    penitential 


^  Rogers,  Religion  of  Bab.  and  Ass.,  p.  226. 

'  Sayce,  Religion  of  Egypt  and  Babylonia,  p.  476. 

'  Gunkel,  Israel  und  Babylonien,  p.  21. 

*  Cf.  Zeit.  fur  Ass.,  IV,  274  f. 

55 


56       AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

prayer/'  from  a  root  which  means  'Ho  conciUate." 
Professor  Zimmern  conjectured  that  the  root  means  "to 
desist."^  But  up  to  the  present  the  only  explanation 
of  shahattum  from  Babylonian  sources  is  that  it  is  a 
synonym  of  gamarv?  and  means  ''to  be  complete,  to  be 
full."  And  this  meaning  becomes  perfectly  intelligible 
in  the  light  of  the  list  of  Sumerian  and  Babylonian  days 
of  the  month  published  by  Pinches/  from  which  we 
learn  that  shahattum  was  the  name  of  the  fifteenth  day 
of  the  month;  and  considered  in  connection  with  the 
synonym  gamdru,  "to  be  complete,"  it  doubtless  had 
reference,  as  has  been  suggested,  to  the  full  moon  in  the 
middle  of  the  month. 

The  idea  originally  advanced  that  Hm  nuji  lihbi  is  a 
"day  of  the  appeasement  (of  the  gods)"  or  "the  day 
for  appeasing  the  anger  of  the  deity  "  seems  to  be  correct. 
This  is  further  illustrated  by  personal  names  such  as 
Liniih-lihhi-Ellil,  "May  the  heart  of  Ellil  be  appeased,"^ 
or  Linuh-libhi-ildni,^  or  Niifi-lihhi-ildni.^  It  is  not 
improbable  that  on  the  day  sha'pattum,  when  the  moon 


^K.A.  T.',  p.  593. 

*  Raw.,  V,  28,  14e-/.  Hehn  ("Siebenzahl  und  Sabbat  bei  den 
Babylon icrn  und  im  Alten  Testament,"  Leipziger  Semitische 
Studien)  holds  that  shaMtu  originally  meant  "to  be  complete,"  like 
gamfiru;  and  that  "to  rest"  is  a  secondary  meaning.  Another  im- 
portant treatise  recently  published  on  the  Sabbath  is  Sabbat  und 
Woche  im  Alten  Testament,  by  Meinhod,  who  takes  a  different  view. 

'  Old  Testament  in  the  Light  of  the  Historical  Records,  p.  527. 
*Cf.  Clay,  B.  E.,  vol.  VIII. 
^B.E.,  vol.  X. 

•  B   E..  vol.  VIII. 


THE    SABBATH  57 

was  full,  appropriate  exercises  were  observed  in  con- 
ciliating the  gods.  But  until  some  evidence  is  forth- 
coming, we  cannot  justifiably  assume  with  Delitzsch 
(Babel  und  Bihel)  that  there  was  a  ''cessation  (of  work), 
keeping  holiday, "  or  that  it  was  a  rest  day  from  human 
labor.  No  other  conclusion,  therefore,  can  be  reached 
than  that  the  Babylonians  did  not  observe  a  day  in 
every  seven,  that  was  called  the  Sabbath.  And,  until 
further  light  on  the  subject  is  produced,  this  must  be 
clearly  understood  to  be  the  fact. 

The  nearest  approach  to  any  resemblance  to  the 
Hebrew  Sabbath  that  is  to  be  found  in  the  cuneiform 
inscriptions  is  on  the  so-called  calendar  of  festivals  for 
the  intercalary  month.  Second  Elul,  and  Marchesvan,^ 
in  which  the  duties  of  the  shepherd  or  king  are  prescribed 
for  the  seventh,  fourteenth,  twenty-first,  twenty-eighth 
and  nineteenth  days.  While  the  other  days  of  the 
month  were  regarded  as  favorable,  these  were  regarded 
both  as  favorable  and  unfavorable.     It  runs  thus: 

"The  seventh  day  is  a  holy  day  of  Marduk  and  Sar- 
panitum,  a  fortunate  day,  an  evil  day.  The  shepherd 
of  the  great  nation  shall  not  eat  meat  roasted  by  the 
fire,  which  is  smoked(?),  he  shall  not  change  his  garment, 
he  shall  not  dress  in  white,  he  shall  not  offer  a  sacrifice. 
The  king  shall  not  ride  in  his  chariot,  the  priestess  shall 
not  pronounce  a  divine  decision,  in  a  secret  place  the 
augur  shall  not  make  (an  oracle) ;  a  physician  shall  not 
touch  a  sick  man;  (the  day)  is  unsuitable  for  doing 


Raw.,  IV,  32-33. 


58      AMURRU   HOME   OF   NORTHERN    SEMITES 

business.  The  king  shall  bring  his  offering  at  night 
before  Marduk  and  Ishtar,  he  shall  make  an  offering; 
his  prayer  shall  be  acceptable  to  god." 

This  UD-gUL-GAL,  or  "evil  day/'  observed  not 
every  seven  days,  but  according  to  the  lunar  month, 
was  not  a  day  of  rest  for  the  people.  As  seen,  there 
were  some  superstitious  requirements  demanded  of  the 
king  on  that  day,  but  not  of  the  common  people. 
Tlie  investigations  of  Johns*  show  that  in  the  Assyrian 
period  in  the  eighth  and  seventh  centuries  before  Christ 
(720-606),  the  seventh,  fourteenth,  twenty-first,  and 
twenty-eighth  days  do  not  show  any  marked  absten- 
tion from  business  transactions.  The  nineteenth  day, 
however,  does.  In  examining  the  dated  tablets  of  the 
First  dynasty  of  Babylon,  i.e.,  the  time  of  Abraham, 
he  concluded  that  there  is  a  noticeable  abstention  on 
these  days,  but  especially  on  the  nineteenth  day.  Of  a 
total  of  356  tablets,  the  number  dated  on  the  first  day 
of  the  month  was  39;  on  the  seventh,  only  5;  on  the 
fourteenth,  5;  on  the  twenty-first  and  twenty-eighth, 
each  8.  Considering  the  month  to  have  thirty  days, 
the  average  for  each  day  of  the  month  would  be  11  and 
a  fraction. 

Johns  does  not  state  whether  his  investigations 
show  that  other  days  besides  the  first  of  the  month 
were  especially  auspicious  for  business  transactions  as 
determined  by  the  dated  contracts.  If  there  were, 
the    figures    do    not    prove    anything.      In   the   Cas- 

*  Expository  Times,  XVII,  p.  567. 


THE    SABBATH  59 

site  period  the  Temple  Archives  show  that  the 
average  amount  of  business  was  transacted  on  those 
days  as  w^ll  as  on  the  nineteenth.  As  Johns  observes, 
however,  most  of  the  Cassite  documents  referring  to 
the  affairs  of  the  temple  may  necessitate  their  being 
considered  from  another  point  of  view.  In  the  time  of 
the  First  dynasty  of  Babylon  and  in  the  Assyrian  period, 
the  nineteenth  day  stands  out  as  one  upon  which  Sabbata- 
rian principles  as  regards  the  doing  of  business  may 
have  been  at  least  partially  observed.  It  seems  it  might 
have  been  a  certain  kind  of  a  holy  day. 

Besides  this  hemerology  for  the  intercalary  month 
Elul  and  Marchesvan^  no  further  light  on  the  subject 
has  been  recovered.  In  the  Hammurabi  Code  of  laws, 
or  in  fact  in  the  thousands  of  tablets  that  have  been 
published,  scholars  have  not  been  able  to  find  anything, 
beyond  what  has  been  discussed,  which  even  by  inference 
would  seem  to  show^  that  the  Babylonians  observed 
such  a  rest  every  seven  days. 

This  hemerology,  or  religious  calendar,  was  found  in 
the  Library  of  Ashurbanipal,  and,  knowing  the  nature 
of  that  Library,  it  is  not  unreasonable  to  assume  that 
his  scribes,  having  collected  every  kind  of  literature, 
ancient  and  modern,  found  in  some  section  of  the  country 
that  such  a  lunar  day  was  observed  by  officials.  Ivnow- 
ing  as  we  do  that  Israel  and  Judah  were  carried  to 
Babylonia  and  Assyria  and  placed  in  captivity,  a  custom 
that  was  practised  in  all  probability  for  millenniums; 
and  that  this  gave  rise  to  many  communities  of  West- 
ern Semitic  peoples  in  the  Euphrates  valley,  it  is  not 


60      AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

unreasonable  to  assume  that  at  least  in  some  places, 
where  this  element  predominated,  the  Sabbath  was 
observed  in  much  the  same  manner  as  it  was  in  Canaan. 
Kjiowing  also  that  most  of  the  published  contracts  of 
the  First  dynasty  (when,  as  was  noticed  by  Johns,  there 
was  at  least  a  falling  off  of  business  transactions  on 
certain  days)  come  largely  from  a  West  Semitic  center, 
it  is  not  impossible  to  see  here  the  results  of  a  West 
Semitic  influence. 

Further,  it  must  be  noted  that  the  Library  of 
Ashurbanipal  belonged  to  the  century  following  the 
fall  of  Samaria  and  the  deportation  of  Israel,  during 
which  century  also  Tiglathpileser  (745-727  B.C.)  took 
Ijon,  Abel-Beth-Maacah,  Janoah,  Kedesh,  Hazor, 
Gilead  and  Galilee,  and  all  the  land  of  Naphtali,  and 
carried  them  captive  to  Assyria  (2  Kings  15  :  29). 
That  is,  in  the  century  prior  to  the  time  the  Library  of 
Ashurbanipal  was  gathered,  thousands  of  Palestinian 
captives  were  brought  to  Assyria.  This  fact  makes  it 
altogether  reasonable  to  expect  to  find  some  traces  of 
the  Hebrew  institution. 

Then  also  it  can  properly  be  assumed  that  other 
Western  Semites  besides  the  Hebrews  observed  the 
Sabbath,  as,  for  example,  the  Aramaeans,  whence  the 
Hebrews  sprung.^  As  there  is  every  indication  in  the 
Old  Testament  that  the  institution  existed  prior  to 
Israel,  and  knowing  how  for  centuries  prior  to  the 
time   of   Ashurbanipal    the    Aramaeans    and  Amorites 

'  Nielsen,  Der  alfnrabische  Mondkult,  shows  that  in  Arabia  there 
were  seven  and  ten-day  periods  observed. 


THE    SABBATH  61 

were  the  prey  of  the  Eastern  kings,  we  have  every 
reason  to  expect  to  find  some  reflections  of  the  observ- 
ance of  the  day  even  from  other  than  Hebrew  sources 
in  that  land. 

This  much  seems  to  be  certain:  The  Sabbath 
as  a  day  of  rest,  observed  every  seven  days,  has  not 
been  found  in  the  Babylonian  Uterature.  While  the 
hemerology  of  the  late  Assyrian  period  has  preserved 
a  knowledge  of  a  regulation  involving  the  king  and  his 
officials  on  the  seventh,  fourteenth,  twenty-first,  twenty- 
eighth  and  nineteenth  days  of  two  months  of  the  year, 
which  days  were  regarded  as  "evil  days''  and  were 
to  be  observed  according  to  certain  restrictions  in  order 
to  appease  the  gods,  it  cannot  even  be  justifiably  assumed 
at  the  present  time  (except  perhaps  for  the  nineteenth 
day)  that  there  was  any  cessation  from  business  of  any 
kind  or  that  there  was  a  rest  day  for  the  people. 

The  very  root  from  which  the  word  is  derived,  if 
in  use  in  the  Assyro-Babylonian  language,  is  almost 
unknown,  and  cannot  be  shown  with  our  present  knowl- 
edge to  have  the  meaning  "to  rest,  cease  or  desist.'' 
It  is  only  necessary,  on  the  other  haad,  for  one  to  glance 
at  a  dictionary  of  Hebrew  words  to  be  impressed  with 
the  widely  extended  usage  of  the  root  shabath,  "  to  cease, 
desist,  rest,"  to  which  the  word  "Sabbath"  belongs. 
And  knowing  what  this  institution  was  to  the  Hebrew, 
as  is  indicated  in  all  the  Old  Testament  codes — that  it 
was  not  a  day  depending  upon  the  lunar  month,  but 
was  observed  every  seventh  day,  although  there  was 
in  addition  the  new-moon  festival  which  was  also  a 


62      AMURRU    HOME    OF   NORTHERN    SEMITES 

day  of  rest;  and  further  appreciating  how  extensive 
was  the  legislation  concerning  it — that  it  meant  not  only 
abstention  from  daily  pursuits,  but  was -a  day  of  con- 
secration, one  which  the  people  sanctified  by  a  proper 
observance;  that  it  was  not  an  austere  day  for  the  king, 
so  that  the  anger  of  the  gods  would  be  appeased,  but 
a  day  of  rest  for  slave,  stranger,  and  even  beast; 
and  that  it  was  an  institution  without  parallel 
in  ancient  as  well  as  in  modern  times,  yes,  the  day 
par  excellence  among  the  Hebrews — it  seems  evident, 
without  any  elaborate  discussion  of  the  question,  that 
the  Pan-Babylonists,  and  others  who  hold  similar  views, 
are  mistaken  when  they  find  the  origin  of  the  institu- 
tion in  Babylonia. 


ANTEDILUVIAN  PATRIARCHS 


For  some  years  Assyriologists  have  declared  that 
the  names  of  the  antediluvian  patriarchs  of  Genesis 
were  borrowed  from  Babylonia,  as  represented  in  the 
antediluvian  mythological  kings  in  the  list  handed  down 
by  Berosus.  Zimmern/  Hommel,^  Jeremias,^  Sayce/ 
and  others  hold  that  the  names  of  the  Hebrew  list,  in 
part  at  least,  are  direct  translations  of  the  Babylonian 
names.  Some  even  hold  that  they  are  the  work  of  a 
learned  priest  of  the  period  of  the  Babylonian  exile. 
Following  is  a  list  of  the  Chaldean  kings  as  quoted 
by  Berosus,  from  Eusebius.^  The  forms  of  the  Armenian 
translation  are  here  presented  in  Latin. ° 

1.  "AXwpo^;,  Aloros. 

2.  "AXa7:apo<s,  Alaporus,  Alapaurus,  Alaparus. 

3.  'A/j.dXapo?^  "AiiTjXojVj  Almelon. 

4.  'A/ifxevwv,  Ammenon. 

5.  MeyaXapo^,  Me^'aXavo^,  Amegalarus. 

6.  Jawvo?,  Jaw?,  Da(v)onus. 

7.  Euedwpaxo?,  Euediops^xo?,  Edoranchus,  Edoreschus. 

8.  "Aiiefiijnvo?,  Amemphsinus. 

^K.A.  ^.^539ff. 

^Proc.  Soc.  Bib.  Arch.,  1893,  243  ff. 

'  Das  Alte  Testament,  etc.,  p.  119. 

*  Expository  Times,  May,  1899,  p.  353. 

*  Chron.  liber  prior,  edited  by  Schoene,  p.  7  S. 

*  See  Zimmern,  K.  A,  T.\  p.  531. 

63 


64      AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

9.  '^TiapTTj^,  "ApdaTr)<s^  Otiartcs. 
10.  St(T()uOpo<s^  IctToudpo?^  Ii(Ttdpo<s,  Xisuthrus. 

The  first  name,  ^AXiopo^,  is  considered  to  be  the  equiv- 
alent of  the  Babylonian  Aruru}  In  the  light  of  the 
discussion  which  is  found  in  Part  II,  it  is  without  doubt 
the  name  of  the  chief  deity  of  the  Amorites,  which  is 
written  El-Ur  or  El-Or  C^l^N)  in  the  recently  dis- 
covered inscription  of  Zakir,  published  by  Pognon. 

These  scholars  all  regard  the  second  name,  'AXanapog^ 
to  be  equivalent  to  Adapa.  It  is,  however,  not 
necessary  to  resort  to  such  violence,  and  especially 
when  it  can  be  translated  as  a  good  West  Semitic  name. 
The  full  name  is  as  above,  or  as  the  Latin  version  has  it, 
namely,  Alaporus.  An  additional  element  must  be 
recognized  besides  Alap,  namely,  the  name  of  the  god 
Vru.^  This  would  give  us  Alap-Vru,  "Friend  or  Ox 
of  t)ru/^  with  which  we  can  compare  the  Babylonian 
name  Rirri'Sin,  "Ox  of  Sin,''  etc.^  Eleph  (^'?N),  which 
is  a  place  name  in  Benjamin  (Joshua  18  :  28),  may  also 
be  compared. 

These  scholars  have  said  Enosh,  "man,''  the  third 
name  in  the  Hebrew  list,  is  a  translation  of  "Apr^Xtov  or 
amelu,  because  the  latter  also  means  "man."  The 
fuller     form     of     the    third     name,    'ApiXXapo^,    must 


*  See  Jeremias,  Das  alle  Testament,  p.  119. 

'  Zirnmern  {K.  A.  T},  p.  531)  recognized  that  the  endings  of 
several  of  the  names  were  similar:  "Die  Endung  pnq  konnte  dabei 
derjonigcn  in  *A/^cj/)or,  'ApM.apnr^  yifynXapoc  nachgebildet  sein." 

'In  Kings,  Chronicles,  II,  p.  17,  Rim(AMA)  is  written.  Cf. 
also  Agal-Marduk,  "  Calf  of  Marduk,"  etc. 


ANTEDILUVIAN    PATRIARCHS  65 

naturally  be  considered  in  preference  to  the  abbre- 
viated  form.  And  here  again  attention  is  called  to 
the  second  element  which  is  Vru.  This  gives  us 
instead  of  Amelu,  which  is  only  part  of  a  name, 
Amel-tJrUj  a  common  proper  name  formation.  In  this 
connection  we  must  remember  that  the  first  element 
may  be  also  West  Semitic,  for  compare  the  name  Amal 
(lf2)?)  of  a  man  in  the  tribe  of  Asher,  which  is  from 
the  stem  meaning  ^'to  labor.''  It  is,  therefore,  safe 
to  conclude  that  both  elements  of  the  name  are  in  all 
probability  West  Semitic. 

The  fourth  name,  ^Aixfieviov,  which  is  regarded  as  the 
equivalent  of  the  Babylonian  word  umnidnu,  "work- 
master,"  it  is  declared  was  translated  into  Hebrew  and 
became  Cain  =  QenaUj  "smith."  It  seems,  inasmuch 
as  no  such  personal  name  as  Ummdnu  exists  among  the 
more  than  ten  thousand  known  Babylonian  names, 
that  we  must  look  for  another  explanation. 

The  fifth  name,  Ms^aXapo?,  does  not  seem  to  have 
been  explained  by  Zimmern  and  Jeremias,  but  Hommel 
suggestsHhat  it  is  a  corruption  of  Amilalarus,  i.e.,  Amil- 
Aruru,  "man  of  Arum.''  Again,  it  should  be  said 
there  is  no  need  to  alter  the  name  in  order  to  explain  it. 
This  can  also  be  West  Semitic,  i.e.,  Megal-tJru,  for  com- 
pare Mikloth  (m'^pD),  the  name  of  a  man  in  the  tribe 
of  Benjamin  (I  Chron.  8  :  32)  and  of  a  general  in  David's 
army  (I  Chron.  27  :  4). 

The  seventh  name,  EdsSwpaxo^,  has  been  identified 


'  Proc.  Soc.  Bib.  Arch.,  1893,  p.  243  ff. 
5 


66      AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

with  En-me-dur-an-ki  (written  in  Sumerian),  the  name 
of  a  mythological  king  of  Sippar,  who  received  reve- 
lations from  his  deity  and  ruled  three  hundred  and  sixty- 
five  years.  The  king  has  been  identified  with  Enoch,  also 
the  seventh  in  the  list  of  the  Hebrew  patriarchs,  "who 
walked  with  God,''  and  lived  before  his  translation 
the  same  number  of  years,  namely,  three  hundred  and 
sixty-five.  While  no  connection  between  the  names  is 
suggested,  there  is  good  reason  for  supposing  that  these 
facts  point  to  a  common  origin. 

The  eighth  name,  "A!xe{j./i>ivo<i  (Amemphsinus) ,  Hom- 
meV  and  other  scholars  think  is  a  corruption  of 
Amilsinus,  i.e.,  Amel-Sin,  "  man  of  the  moon-god  Sin," 
and  compare  it  with  the  eighth  Hebrew  name,  Methu- 
Salah,  "man  of  Salah  or  of  the  javelin."  This,  Sayce^ 
suggests,  is  a  variation  of  Mutu-sha-Irkhu,  "  man  of  the 
moon-god, "  which  is  equivalent  to  the  Hebrew  Methu- 
sha'el.  These  explanations  and  comparisons  do  not 
appear  to  be  convincing. 

The  ninth  name,  QTiaprrjq,  which  Alexander  Poly- 
histor  writes  "Apdarrj?,  is  made  equivalent  by  these 
scholars  to  Ubar-Tutu,  the  father  of  the  Babylonian 
hero  of  the  deluge.  No  effort  is  made  to  compare 
this  name  with  Lamech,  which  is  the  ninth  in  the  Hebrew 
list.  It  should  be  noted  that  the  form  given  by  Poly- 
histor  may  perhaps  be  nearer  the  original,  in  which  case 
the  first  element  in  the  name  probably  is  the  god  JJru, 
which  frequently  appears  as  Aru  (see  Part  II).     The 

»  Proc.  Soc.  Bib.  Arch.,  1893,  p.  243  ff. 
'  Expository  Times,  1899,  v.  353. 


ANTEDILUVIAN    PATRIARCHS  67 

second  element  may  be  represented  in  the  name 
Dati,  a  scribe  of  the  time  of  Sargon,  as  well  as  in  the 
name  Dati-Ellil,  the  well  loiown  father  of  Sargon  of 
Akkad.  Compare  also  Ardata,  a  place  name  along  the 
coast  of  the  Mediterranean  in  the  Amarna  letters. 

The  tenth  is  that  of  the  hero  of  the  deluge,  which  is 
regarded  as  an  epithet  of  UT-napishtim,  the  Babylonian 
Noah.  Although  no  relationship  between  the  names  is 
apparent,  the  fact  that  the  tenth  name  ends  both  lists 
with  the  diluvian  hero  points  to  some  connection  be- 
tween them.  And  this  gives  rise  to  the  usual  question 
asked  in  connection  with  discussions  of  this  character, 
Is  the  Babylonian  derived  from  the  Hebrew,  or  the 
Hebrew  from  the  Babylonian,  or  have  they  a  common 
origin? 

As  stated  above,  the  view  which  has  been  widely 
accepted,  is  that  a  learned  priest  secured  these  legends 
from  the  Babylonians  while  in  exile;  that  he  translated 
the  names  into  Hebrew,  and  appropriated  the  list  for 
the  history  of  his  race.  The  conclusions  which  these 
scholars  reach  seem  to  demand  that  the  Jews  allowed 
an  extensive  influence  to  be  exerted  upon  them  by  this 
polytheistic  people,  who  had  robbed  them  not  only 
of  their  independence  and  the  actual  possession  of  their 
territory,  but  also  even  deported  them  and  held  them  in 
bondage.  That  is,  their  kings  and  priests  and  people 
were  torn  from  their  ancestral  home;  their  women  and 
children  were  forced  to  endure  the  awful  hardships 
entailed  upon  them  in  being  transferred,  after  having 
been  subjected  to  atrocious  indignities  of  every  imagin- 


68      AMURRU    HOME    OF   NORTHERN    SEMITES 

able  character,  and  then  held  as  slaves  in  this  alien  land. 
Is  the  theory  reasonable  that  the  priests,  learned  in 
their  ancient  cult  and  in  their  ancestral  history,  should 
have  adopted  at  this  time  as.  their  own  antecedents 
these  mythological  kings  of  Babylonia,  who,  Berosus 
tells  us,  ruled,  on  an  average,  four  hundred  and  thirty- 
two  thousand  years? 

The  Jews  were  carried  to  Babylonia  by  Nebuchad- 
rezzar, and  many  were  deposited  in  the  vicinity  of 
Nippur.^  In  the  time  of  Artaxerxes  I.  and  Darius  II. 
the  country  seems  to  have  abounded  with  them.  While 
many  returned  to  their  own  land,  a  large  population 
continued  to  reside  there.  The  Babylonian  Talmud 
was  written  in  that  land  by  the  descendants  of  those 
that  remained.  Naturally,  if  the  Jews  who  returned 
to  Palestine  had  been  so  extensively  influenced  by  the 
Babylonian  religion  and  history,  we  should  suppose 
that  the  Jews  who  remained  in  the  land  certainly,  by 
reason  of  their  attachment  for  it,  would  have  been 
influenced  even  more  in  this  direction.  But  this  does 
not  seem  to  have  been  the  case. 

The  spoken  language  of  Babylonia  when  the  Jews 
lived  in  exile  was  the  Aramaic*  When  they  returned 
to  Palestine  they  found  that  Aramaic,  which  was  the 
lingua  Jranca  at  that  time  of  Western  Asia  and  Egypt, 
was  generally  spoken  in  the  land.  To  accept  the  con- 
clusion of  these  scholars  we  are  required  also  to  explain 

*  See  Clay,  Light  on  the  Old  Testament,  p.  403  ff. 
'See  Winckler,   Geschichte  Bab.  vnd  Ass.,  p.   179;  Clay,  Bah. 
Exp.,  X,  p.  10,  and  Light  on  the  Old  Testament  from  Babel,  p.  397  f. 


ANTEDILUVIAN    PATRIARCHS  69 

why  these  late  Hebrew  priests  or  scribes  should  have 
adopted  the  language  of  the  earlier  period  for  these 
m3rths  and  legends  which  they  are  supposed  to  have 
mtroduced  in  Jewry,  and  why  they  interspersed  their 
writings  with  many  archaic  forms.  Did  these  religious 
innovators  by  so  doing  desire  to  give  their  borrowed 
stories  an  ancient  appearance,  and  thus  deceive  the 
people  by  their  literary  forgeries? 

As  mentioned  above,  the  fact  that  Edoranchus 
and  Enoch,  respectively  the  sixth  of  each  list,  both 
conversed  with  their  deities,  and  the  former  ruled  three 
hundred  and  sixty-five  years,  the  same  number  that 
the  latter  lived  on  earth,  and  the  further  fact  that  the 
tenth  and  last  of  each  list  are  the  heroes  of  the  deluge, 
seem  to  be  points  that  cannot  be  considered  simply 
as  coincidences.  But,  as  is  further  shown  above,  the 
argument  that  the  Hebrew  is  a  translation  of  the  Baby- 
lonian is  utterly  without  proof. 

In  the  light  of  all  these  facts,  the  most  reasonable 
conclusion  seems  to  be,  that  inasmuch  as  most  of  the 
names  can  be  explained  as  being  West  Semitic,  they  are 
such  and  not  Babylonian.  This  follows  from  the  fact 
that  the  chief  deity  of  the  Amorites  (discussed  in  Part  II), 
here  written  Qpo?,  Oros  and  Aurus,  figures  in  five  of 
the  ten  names.  Since  the  fist  of  these  mythological 
kings  is  headed  by  'AXajpo^^  "God  Vru,"  we  must 
conclude  that  it  was  brought  into  Babylonia  by  the 
Semites  from  the  West.  It  is  perfectly  natural  that 
the  Semitic  Babylonians,  who  were  not  indigenous  to 
Babylonia,  but,  as  I  maintain,  in  all  probability  were 


70      AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

from  AmurrUj  should  have  preserved  after  they  entered 
Babylonia  their  ancient  Ust  of  kings,  headed  by  the 
name  of  their  chief  deity.  This  enabled  them,  naturally, 
to  regard  their  rulers  as  having  divine  origin.  Instead, 
therefore,  of  finding  the  origin  of  this  legendary  list  of 
kings  in  Babylonia,  together  with  their  culture,  it  is  to 
be  traced  back  to  a  common  stock  of  Semitic  traditions, 
which  had  their  origin  in  the  great  land  Amurru, 


DELUGE  STORY 


The  most  important  proof  of  the  absolutely  unques- 
tionable dependence  of  the  biblical  narrative  upon  a 
Babylonian  archetype  that  scholars  have  found  is  the 
story  of  the  Deluge.  Gunkel  is  right  in  saying  that 
almost  all  Assyriologists  and  Old  Testament  scholars 
regard  the  Deluge  story  indubitably  of  Babylonian 
origin.^  Delitzsch  and  others  incline  even  to  the  opinion 
that  the  biblical  author  had  the  Babylonian  legend 
before  him,  and  that  he  translated  and  revised  it. 
Even  Rogers  says  that  it  is  "  quite  clear  that  the  material 
of  the  Hebrew  narrative  goes  back  undoubtedly  to  the 
Babylonian  original."^ 

The  Babylonian  story  of  the  Deluge  is  so  well  known' 
that  it  is  not  necessary  to  recapitulate  it  here.  The 
striking  resemblances  to  the  biblical  story  have  so  fre- 
quently been  noted  that  they  need  not  be  repeated; 
nor  is  it  necessary  to  emphasize  the  fact  that  they  show 
a  common  origin  for  both  narratives.^  In  so  far  all 
scholars  are  agreed. 

Gunkel,  however,  taking  the  position  generally 
held,  thinks  that  those  who  are  unwilling  to  agree  that 

1  Israel  und  Bahylonien,  p.  16.  Cf .  also  Jastrow,  Rel  of  Bab.  and 
Ass.,  p.  506. 

2  Religion  of  Bab.  and  Ass.,  p.  209. 

5  See  Clay,  Light  on  the  Old  Testament  from  Babel,  p.  84  ff.,  or 
other  works  of  the  same  character. 

71 


72      AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

the  Hebrew  account  is  dependent  on  the  Babylonian, 
but  who  say  that  both  are  versions  of  the  same  event, 
have  over-anxious  temperaments.  He  claims  that  inas- 
much as  the  stories  coincide  in  so  many  minor  details, 
they  are  related  as  narratives.  To  prove  that  the 
Israelitish  story  was  borrowed  from  Babylonia,  he 
sums  up  his  views  in  his  Israel  und  Babylonien  (p.  19) 
in  two  arguments. 

First,  the  great  age  of  Babylonian  civilization  and 
of  the  deluge  narrative  as  well;  second,  the  frequent 
occurrence  of  floods  is  very  natural  in  the  flat  plain  of 
Babylonia,  which  lies  close  to  the  sea  and  is  watered  by 
two  great  streams. 

The  argument  advanced  by  Zimmern,  who  holds 
also  that  the  narrative  was  transplanted  from  Baby- 
lonia, its  birthplace,  is  practically  the  same  as  the 
arguments  of  Gunkel.  He  says  that  the  story,  which 
was  primitive,  was  indigenous  in  Babylonia,  and  was 
transplanted  to  Palestine;  because  the  very  essence  of 
the  Babylonian  narrative  presupposes  a  country  liable 
to  inundations,  like  Babylonia.  He  regards  the  story 
simply  as  a  "nature  myth,"  representing  the  phenomena 
of  winter,  which  in  Babylonia  is  a  time  of  rain.^ 

These  writers  hold  the  theory  advanced  by  Dillman, 
as  well  as  by  others,  that  there  was  a  common  Semitic 
tradition  which  developed  in  Israel  in  one  way  and  in 
Babylonia  in  another,  is  to  be  rejected.     Those  who 


*  Encydo'pddia  Bihlica,  I,  p.  1059.    See  also  Driver,  Commentary 
on  Genesis,  p.  107. 


DELUGE    STORY  73 

fail  to  be  convinced  that  there  was  no  such  common 
source  are  accused  by  Gunkel  of  being  possessed  with 
anxious  piety  in  a  sad  combination  with  a  pitiful  lack 
of  culture. 

Besides  the  eleventh  tablet  of  the  Gilgamesh  epic, 
which  contains  the  deluge  story,  three  other  fragments 
have  been  found.  The  one,  which  is  too  small  to  be  of 
any  value,  belonging  to  the  early  age,  refers  to  the  Baby- 
lonian hero.  The  second,  now  in  the  library  of  Mr. 
J.  Pierpont  Morgan,  was  written  in  the  reign  of  Ammi- 
zaduga,  about  2000  B.C.,  and  represents  a  god  calling 
upon  Adad  to  cause  a  destructive  rainstorm,  and  Ea 
interposing  in  order  to  save  the  diluvian  hero.  There 
are  indications  that  even  this  is  a  copy  of  an  earlier 
tablet.  Scheil,  who  has  given  an  account  of  the  tablet, 
thinks  this  story  was  current  in  Sippara.  We,  therefore, 
have  a  Babylonian  version  of  a  deluge,  distinct  from  the 
other,  several  centuries  prior  to  the  time  of  Moses.  A  third 
is  in  the  Berlin  Museum.  Moreover,  early  seal-cylinders 
clearly  indicate  that  scenes  from  the  Gilgamesh  epic 
were  favorite  themes  for  the  lapidary  of  Babylonia  or 
Shumer  in  a  very  early  period.  It  is  not  improbable 
that  some  represent  a  Sumerian  Noah  in  his  ark. 
But  this  only  proves  the  antiquity  of  some  of  the  ele- 
ments of  which  the  epic  is  composed. 

It  is  a  well  recognized  fact  that  the  Gilgamesh  series 
is  a  collection  of  stories  which  became  the  national  epic 
of  the  late  Babylonians.  Its  composite  character  has 
already  been  pointed  out;  the  work  of  the  redactor  in 
combining    the    different   elements  being  an  accepted 


74      AMURRU    HOME    OF   NORTHERN    SEMITES 

fact.*  In  the  epic  are  found  relics  of  ancient  Sumerian 
mythology  combined  with  Semitic  sun-myths;  and  some 
of  the  latter  at  least,  the  writer  claims,  have  come  from 
an  ancient  stock  of  legends  possessed  by  the  Western 
Semites. 

It  is  not  a  question  whether  Israel  borrowed  the 
Deluge  story  from  this  Babylonian  composition,  or  the 
Babylonians  from  Israel,  but  whether  the  Semitic 
elements  in  the  Gilgamesh  epic  are  indigenous  to 
Southern  Babylonia  (i.e.,  to  the  Sumerians) ;  or  whether 
they  had  their  origin  with  the  Semitic  Babylonians 
who  entered  the  land;  or  whether  they  go  back  to  that 
Semitic  center  from  which  they  came.  It  seems  that 
most  of  the  theories  on  the  subject  which  result  in  saying 
the  Hebrews  borrowed  their  story  from  the  Babylonians 
emanate  from  a  very  contracted  view  of  the  situation; 
as  if  the  only  civilized  peoples  in  Western  Asia  that 
possessed  a  literature  or  mythology  were  the  Baby- 
lonians or  Sumerians  and  Israel.  That  the  Babylonian 
legend  is  of  a  great  antiquity  offers  no  difficulty.  The 
almost  universal  character  of  a  tradition  of  the  event, 
which  marked  an  epoch  for  ancient  peoples,  the  writer 
thinks,  is  based  upon  the  recollection  of  an  actual  inun- 
dation of  an  extraordinary  character.  The  Babylonian 
and  the  Hebrew  narratives,  both  of  which  can  be  said  to 
belong  to  a  comparatively  late  period  in  the  history  of 
man,  have  many  points,  as  we  have  seen,  in  common. 
Doubtless  the  Sumerians  also  possessed  a  narrative, 

*  See  Jastrow,  Rel.  Bab.  and  Ass.,  p.  470. 


DELUGE    STORY  75 

which  may  yet  be  found,  some  of  the  elements  of  which 
are  included  in  the  Gilgamesh  series;  but  which  may 
have  been  a  story  altogether  different  in  character  from 
the  Hebrew  and  the  Babylonian. 

A  fact  to  be  constantly  kept  before  us  is  that  the 
biblical  account  makes  the  ark  rest  upon  the  mountains 
of  Ararat  (i.e.,  Urartu  of  the  inscriptions),  while  the 
Babylonian  fixes  the  place  at  Mt.  Nisir.  If  Nisir  is  a 
mountain,  east  of  the  Tigris,  across  the  Little  Zab,  as 
has  been  declared,  it  can  be  said  to  be  in  Urartu,  for 
that  country  included  the  highlands  north  of  Assyria. 
It  is  a  question  whether  in  ancient  times  Urartu  included 
the  lofty  mountainous  plateau  now  known  as  Armenia. 
But  the  point  to  be  emphasized  is  that  both  the  Hebrew 
and  the  Babylonian  stories  localized  the  second  beginning 
of  man's  history,  not  only  in  the  same  region,  but  also 
outside  of  Babylonia. 

The  biblical  story  contains  some  features  which 
are  acknowledged  to  be  distinctively  Palestinian. 
These,  it  is  claimed,  made  their  appearance  after  the 
story  reached  Palestine  and  was  appropriated  by  the 
Hebrews.  They  are  "Noah,"  ''the  olive  leaf,"  which 
is  characteristic  of  Palestine;  "the  ark,"  instead  of  a 
ship,  because  there  are  no  large  navigable  rivers  in  that 
land;  and  the  beginning  of  the  deluge  on  the  seventeenth 
day  of  the  second  month,  as  that  is  the  month  the  rains 
begin  in  Canaan,  whereas  the  Babylonian  deluge  began 
in  the  eleventh  month,  the  time  the  rains  begin  to  fall  in 
Babylonia.  This  latter  is  based  on  the  fact  that  the 
epic  was  written  on  twelve  tablets,  which  Rawlinson 


76      AMURRU    HOME    OF   NORTHERN    SEMITES 

suggested  represented  the  months;  the  eleventh  tablet, 
therefore,  corresponding  to  the  eleventh  month.  There 
seems  to  be  about  as  much  proof  for  this  assertion  as 
if  it  were  said  that  all  books  containing  365  pages  rep- 
resent the  days  of  the  year.  Further,  I  fail  to  see  that 
"Noah"  is  distinctively  Palestinian.  There  is  but 
one  Noah  known  in  the  literature  of  Palestine,  whereas 
the  element  NUJi  is  frequently  found  in  Babylonian 
nomenclature.  It  would  seem  that  the  Pan-Babylonists 
have  here  overlooked  an  important  argument. 

The  statement  that  "olives"  are  characteristic  of 
Palestine  is  most  interesting,  but  it  would  have  been  more 
correct  to  have  said  Palestine  and  Syria,  or  still  more 
appropriately  Amurru,  for  at  Beirut  and  Tripolis  there 
are  olive  groves  five  miles  square.  Little  or  nothing  is 
known  of  the  origin  of  the  word  "ark"  {tehah),  although 
some  declare  it  is  of  Egyptian  origin.  These  supposed 
features,  due  to  Palestinian  influences  after  the  story  was 
borrowed  from  the  Babylonian,  do  not  offer  very  weighty 
arguments  in  support  of  the  theory  that  the  Deluge 
story  originated  in  Southern  Babylonia. 

Tlie  Babylonian  epic,  as  stated  above,  is  composed 
of  Semitic  and  Sumerian  elements,  the  latter,  it  seems, 
growing  up  especially  at  Erech.  The  stories  are  made 
to  revolve  about  the  hero,  named  Gilgamesh,  who  is 
either  a  sun-god  or  his  representative.  As  Sayce  has 
said,  "The  story  of  the  Deluge,  which  constitutes  the 
eleventh  book,  has  been  foisted  into  it  by  an  almost 
violent  artifice."*    The  scenes  are  shifted  from  Erech, 

«  Rel.  of  Egypt  and  Bah.,  p.  423. 


DELUGE    STORY  77 

and  the  hero  starts  on  a  journey  to  his  ancestor  UT- 
naj)ishtim,  in  order  to  learn  the  mystery  of  his  apo- 
theosis, and  to  be  reUeved  of  a  loathsome  disease. 

A  very  prominent  feature  in  the  path  of  this  celestial 
voyager,  before  he  embarked  upon  the  sea  of  death  or 
darkness,  which  was  the  Mediterranean,  was  the  gate  of 
the  setting  sun.  This  was  at  the  mountain  Mdshu. 
Its  entrance  was  guarded  by  monsters  daily  from  sun- 
rise to  sunset.  This  would  imply  from  the  rising  of 
the  sun  until  it  passed  through  the  gate  at  even,  when 
it  was  closed.  Jensen  properly  considers  that  this 
mountain  was  in  Amurru,  near  the  shore  of  the  Medi- 
terranean,^ and  that  perhaps  it  is  to  be  identified  with 
the  gap  made  by  the  Lebanon  and  Anti-Lebanon 
moimtains. 

This  gate  is  the  place  of  the  erib  shamshi, "  the  entering 
of  the  sun,'^  or,  to  give  its  earlier  Sumerian  form,  the  place 
of  MAR-TU,  i.e.,  'Hhe  entering  in  of  Mar''  (see  Part 
II).  In  the  Gilgamesh  epic,  of  which  the  Deluge  story 
is  a  part,  the  hero,  who  is  a  solar  god,  or  the  repre- 
sentative of  that  deity,  is  thus  made  to  figure  promi- 
nently in  connection  with  the  Western  mountain  of 
the  world,  in  Amurru,  "  whose  back  extends  to  the  dam 
of  heaven,  and  whose  breast  reaches  down  to  Arallu 
(Hades)."  This  association  with  the  Western  gate  of 
the  sun,  located  in  the  land  of  Amurru,  points  to  indis- 


*  Cf.  K.  B.,  p.  575  f .  Jensen,  ibid.,  p.  467,  as  well  as  Hommel, 
Atic.  Heb.  Trad.,  p.  35,  had  previously  considered  the  mountain 
to  be  in  Arabia. 


78      AMURRU    HOxME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

putable  connections  with  the  great  Shamash  or  Oru 
of  the  Western  Semites. 

The  name  Gilgamesh  seems  to  be  Semitic,  although 
most  of  the  scenes  of  the  legend  are  depicted  at  Erech 
(see  page  142),  in  Babylonia.  The  syllabary  published  by 
Pinches*  determined  the  reading  of  the  name  Gilgamesh 
for  the  late  period,  i.e.,  GISH-TU-MASH  =  Gi-il-ga- 
mesh.  This  enabled  scholars  to  identify  the  deity  with 
the  mythical  king  rd/a/io?  mentioned  by  Aelian.^ 

A  fuller  and  earlier  form  of  the  name,  however,  has 
been  found  on  a  little  square  tablet  in  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania  Museum,^  referring  to  a  building  in 
Erech  (which  city  figured  so  prominently  in  the  legend), 
dedicated  to  a  deity  whose  name  is  written  "^GISH-BIL- 
GA-MISH. 

The  final  element  of  the  name,  it  will  be  noticed, 
is  written  in  three  different  ways,  MISH,  MASH  and 
MESH.  This  looks  as  if  the  name  is  not  Sumerian, 
but  quite  probably  represents  a  Semitic  element. 
In  this  connection  we  recall  that  the  Nineveh  temple 
E-M ASH-MASH  is  written  E-MISH-MISH  in  the 
Hammurabi  Code  (IV,  61).  The  element  MISH  is 
also  in  the  name  of  the  Nergal  temple  at  Cutha,  E-MISH- 
LAM;  and  MASH  is  in  the  name  of  the  temple  E-UL- 


'  Bab.  and  Onen.  Rec,  IV,  1890,  p.  264. 

'  See  Sayce,  Academy,  1890,  8,  Nov.,  p.  24. 

'  The  text  was  published  by  Hilprecht,  B.  E.,  I,  part  1,  No.  26, 
and  was  first  translated  by  Hommel,  P.  S.  B.  A.,  XVI:  13.  Poebel 
also  found  the  name  in  texts  which  he  recently  published,  cf.  B.  E., 
VI,  2,  No.  26,  111:6. 


DELUGE    STORY  79 

MASH  Sit  Agade,  etc.  As  Gilga-mesh  is  a  solar  deity 
and  figures  in  connection  with  the  mountain  Mdshu 
(see  also  discussion,  page  126  f,  on  Sha-Mash,  Di-Mash- 
qi,  etc.),  a  plausible  conjecture  is  that  the  name  of  the 
deity  of  the  mountain  is  contained  in  the  name.*  If 
this  is  true,  the  same  element  in  temple  names  would 
show  extraordinary  influence  from  the  West. 

The  name  of  the  diluvian  hero,  the  ancestor  of 
Gilgamesh,  whom  he  visited,  and  who  related  his  experi- 
ences, has  been  a  subject  of  considerable  controversy  for 
years.  If  not  altogether  it  is  partly  Semitic ;  and  there 
are  good  reasons  for  regarding  it  as  containmg  an 
element  foreign  to  the  Semitic  Babylonian,  which 
probably  is  from  the  West.     Many  different  readings 

1  The  first  element  of  the  name  is  written  GISH-BIL-GA  and 
GISH-TU  (or  TUN).  GISH-TU^  pdshu,  which  Jensen  translates 
"axe";  cf.  K.  B.,  VI,  p.  187;  also  Zimmern,  Ritualtafeln,  141,  note 
C.  The  ideogram  TU  also=  pa-la-qu  (cf.  P.  S.  B.  A.,  December, 
1880,  PI.  If.,  li.  34).  Paluqu,  perhaps  the  same  as  baldqu,  means 
"to  destroy,  kill,  ravage"  (cf.  Muss-Arnolt,  Die,  p.  810),  from 
which  pilaqqu,  "axe,"  is  derived.  In  the  Hammurabi  period  the 
name  Belaqu  occurs  a  number  of  times  (cf.  Ranke,  P.  N.)]  and  in 
the  Cassite  period  Bilaqqu  (cf.  Clay,  B.  E.,  XV).  With  these  names 
we  can  compare  the  biblical  Balak  (p'la).  As  a  mere  conjecture 
I  would  like  to  propose  that  the  name  Gilgamesh  in  view  of  the 
writing  ^^^^Bilga-Mish,  means  the  "Axe  of  Mash."  This  when 
written  in  Sumerian  appeared  with  the  determinative  which  was 
pronounced,  and  in  time  became  Semitized  into  Gisbilga  and  later 
became  Gilga.  The  axe  in  the  myth  appearing  frequently  as  his 
weapon  (cf.  also  the  representations  of  Adad-Teshup  given  by 
Jefemias,  in  Roscher),  it  is  not  an  unreasonable  conjecture.  This 
being  true,  it  is  altogether  reasonable  to  assume,  especially  in  the 
light  of  other  facts  here  considered,  that  Gilgamesh  was  originally 
Amoritish. 


80      AMURRU    HOME    OF   NORTHERN    SEMITES 

and  explanations  have  been  offered  for  the  name/ 
The  second  element  is  clearly  napishtim,  but  the  first 
has  been  read  UT,  Pir,  Per,  §it,  Shamash,  NUb,  etc. 
The  sign  UD  has  properly  also  the  value  Bir,^  and  the 
name  can  be  read  Bir-napishtim;  and  if  so,  perhaps  it  is 
an  abbreviation  for  a  name  like  Bir'napishtim-usur, 
"0  Bir,  protect  the  life'';  like  NahH-napishtim-usur,  a 
common  formation  among  Babylonian  names.  This 
reading  seems  to  be  supported  by  the  tablet  now  in  the 
J.  Pierpont  Morgan  Collection,  which  was  discovered 
by  Scheil,  who  found  Pi-i[r]  where  he  thought  the  name 
was  broken  away.  This  reading  of  the  name  would 
explain  why  the  determinative  for  deity  is  omitted, 


^  Pir-napishtim,  "offspring  of  life"  (Delitzsch,  Schrader,  Jas- 
trow) ;  Par-napishti7n  (Haupt,  Muss-Arnolt) ;  J^U-napishtim,  "  the 
saved  one"  (Jensen,  Jeremias);  Nuji-napishtim,  "rest  of  the  soul" 
(Hommel,  Ball);  Sliamash-napishtim,  "sun  of  life"  (Hommel); 
tJm-napishtim,  "day  of  life";  UT-napishtim  (Jensen).  Zimmern, 
K.  A.  T.3,  p.  545,  thinks  Jensen  in  translating  "he  saw  (uta,  Ht) 
the  life,"  i.e.,  "he  found  life,"  has  finally  solved  the  difficulty; 
but  a  parallel  name  in  Babylonian  nomenclature  does  not  exist. 
The  same  is  true  of  the  other  explanations.  If  UT  or  Shamash 
were  considered  to  be  deities,  and  the  name  regarded  as  a  hypo- 
choristicon  for  a  name  like  Bir-napishtim-u§ur,  as  above,  the  diffi- 
culties are  removed.  Naturally  some  of  the  explanations  are  given 
on  the  supposition  that  the  name  is  symbolical  of  the  part  played 
by  tlie  hero;  but  even  in  that  case  we  should  expect  a  regular  for- 
mation. 

'  In  Strassmaier,  Dar.  365  :  20,  the  name  of  an  individual  is 
written  '^MUR-ihni,  and  in  Dar.  366  :  18,  the  same  name  is  written 
'^UT-ibni,  which  must  be  read  Mur  or  Bir.  Inasmuch  as  Mur, 
Mir,  Bir,  etc.,  are  variations  of  the  same  name  (see  below  and  K.  A. 
T.^  443  ff.)  the  reading  is  plausible. 


DELUGE    STORY  81 

because  Bir  was  regarded  as  a  foreign  god  in  Assyria; 
and  in  such  instances,  because  of  religious  prejudices, 
the  scribes  frequently  omitted  the  determinative  (see 
Part  II). 

It  should  be  added,  however,  that  there  is  one  diffi- 
culty in  connection  with  this  explanation.  The  fragment 
of  the  version  in  Berlin^  gives  the  hero's  name  twice 
U-ta-na-ish-tim,  which  would  support  the  reading  UTA 
or  UTj  and  the  translation,  "he  saw  or  found  lire,'' 
perhaps  symbolical  of  the  part  played  by  the  hero.  The 
element  na-ish-tim  then  stands  for  napishtim;  but,  as 
far  as  is  known  to  the  writer,  unless  it  be  assumed  that 
the  scribe  made  the  same  mistake  twice,  this  phonetic 
change  is  peculiar  to  the  name,  and  is  difficult  to  explain. 
Whether  the  scribe  who  copied  the  myth  from  an  earlier 
tablet  was  familiar  with  the  proper  reading  of  the  name 
remains  to  be  seen.  If  he  was  not,  it  would  be  possible 
to  explain  his  writing  U-TA  for  UT  otherwise.  Besides 
the  peculiar  transmission  of  the  name  Gilgamesh, 
mentioned  above,  and  the  name  Enkidu  (usually  read 
Ea-hdni),  which  is  written  EN-KI-DU  and  EN-GI-DU,^ 
perhaps  the  writing  Uta-napishtim  also  indicates  a 
partial  semitizing  of  a  Sumerian  writing. 

This  hero  of  the  flood,  as  Prof.  Zimmern  has  said,* 
must    also   have    been    a    sun-god.     Bir    or    Shamash 


*  See    Meissner,  MiUeilungen  der  Vorderasiatischen  Gesellschaft, 
1902,  No.  1. 

^  This  reading  was  communicated  to  me  by  both  Ungnad  and 
Poebcl,  who  seem  to  have  reached  the  same  conchision  independently. 

^  Encyclopccdia  Biblica,  I,  Col.  1058. 
6 


82      AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

would  therefore  be  quite  appropriate  for  the  name. 
Moreover,  in  consideration  of  what  follows  in  Part  II, 
the  name  appears  to  show  connections  with  the  culture 
that  came  from  the  West.  Buzur-KUR-GAL,  the  pilot 
of  the  ship  in  the  Babylonian  deluge  story,  now  to  be 
read  Buzur-Vru,  also  shows  West  Semitic  influence,  as 
the  name  is  compounded  with  the  chief  deity  of  Amurru. 
Also,  the  gods  which  figured  in  the  narrative  are  mostly 
those  which  are  recognized  as  being  different  representa- 
tions of  the  sun-god,  brought  into  Babylonia  from 
the  West,  prominent  among  them  being  Shamash  and 
Urra-gal. 

In  view  of  these  considerations,  we  may  conclude 
that  predominant  elements  in  this  and  other  parts  of 
the  Gilgamesh  epic  are  connected  with  the  sun-deity 
and  the  land  of  the  Western  Semites,  and  that  the  origin 
of  the  Semitic  portion  of  the  epic,  which  doubtless 
includes  those  features  which  are  common  to  the  biblical 
narrative,  goes  back  to  a  West  Semitic  narrative, 
which  is  parent  also  to  the  biblical  version. 

We  are,  therefore,  led  to  conclude,  in  the  light  of 
these  facts,  that  the  influence  of  Babylonia  upon  Israel 
or  even  Amurru  has  been  greatly  overestimated.  In 
fact,  exactly  the  reverse  seems  to  be  the  case,  i.e.,  many 
of  the  elements  of  the  Semitic  Babylonian  religion  and 
literature  are  not  indigenous  to  the  land,  but  in  all 
probability  came  from  the  West;  at  least  they  had  their 
natural  development  in  that  part  of  Western  Asia.  The 
ultimate  origin  may  belong  elsewhere,  but  that  does  not 
affect  these  conclusions. 


ORTGINAL  HOME  OF  SEMITIC 
CULTURE 


Some  scholars  have  held  that  Southern  Babylonia 
was  the  original  seat  of  the  Semites,  or  of  the  Semitic 
culture;  others  say  the  eastern  confines  of  Africa;  still 
others  Armenia;  but  the  great  majority  of  scholars 
hold  that  the  interior  of  the  Arabian  peninsula  or 
Southern  Arabia  was  the  cradle  of  the  Semites/ 

The  one  important  argument  in  support  of  the 
Arabian  theory,  which  has  met  with  such  wide  accept- 
ance, is  that  the  Arabic  represents  the  purest  Semitic 
language.  This  seems  to  have  little  force,  however, 
when  we  take  into  consideration  that,  as  far  as  we 
know,  there  was  no  important  center  of  culture  in  Arabia 
which  would  have  experienced  as  rapid  a  development 
from  what  was  primitive  as  would  be  found  elsewhere 
under  other  conditions.  It  is  the  opinion  of  some 
scholars  that  the  Ethiopic  language  is  even  purer 
than  the  Arabic;  why  not  assume  that  Abyssinia  is  the 
cradle  of  the  Semites? 

The  arguments  advanced  from  a  study  of  the  social 
and  economic  conditions  seem  to  be  rather  precarious. 
The  earliest  influence  upon  Babylonia  from  Arabia 
claimed  by  some  scholars,  is  the  time  known  as  the  First 

^  For  a  full  discussion  of  the  various  theories  on  this  question 
see  Barton,  Semitic  Origins,  pp.  1  ff, 

83 


84      AMURRU   HOME    OF   NORTHERN   SEMITES 

dynasty  of  Babylon,  about  2000  B.C.  Even  though  it 
be  admitted  that  the  rulers  of  the  First  dynasty  are 
Arabian,  they  came  into  possession  of  Babylonia  many 
centuries  after  the  Semites  had  entered  that  land;  and, 
like  the  Cassite  kings  and  their  subjects,  they  did  not, 
as  far  as  has  been  shown,  seem  to  have  influenced  the 
Babylonian  culture.  We  therefore  have  no  light 
from  early  inscriptions  upon  this  mooted  question, 
for  the  earliest  from  Arabia  are  the  Minsean,  which 
belong  to  about  the  fifteenth  century  B.C. 

The  Semites  must  have  migrated  to  Babylonia  at 
the  latest  in  the  fourth  or  perhaps  fifth  millennium  B.C., 
entering  from  the  North,  and  slowly  but  effectually 
crowding  out  the  Sumerians.  As  the  Semitic  Baby- 
lonian is  more  closely  related  to  the  Aramaic  and  Hebraic 
(or  Amoraic)  than  to  the  Arabic  and  Abyssinian,^  it 
ought  to  follow  that  the  Babylonian,  Hebraic  and 
Aramaic  tongues  were  at  one  time  the  same  language. 

*Hommel,  Ungnad,  Brockelmann  and  others  divide  the  Semitic 
languages  into  East  and  West  Semitic.  They  maintain  that  the  former, 
i.e.,  the  East  Semitic,  is  represented  by  the  Assyro-Babylonian. 
Tlie  latter,  i.e.,  West  Semitic,  is  divided  into  South  Semitic  (Arabic 
.lad  Ethiopic)  and  North  Semitic  (Hebraic  and  Aramaic).  The 
separation  of  the  Babylonian  from  the  others  into  a  separate  class 
has  been  prompted  largely  by  grammatical  differences.  Tlicse,  it 
seems  to  me,  must  be  explained  as  being  greatly  due  to  the  influence 
of  the  Sumerian  script  and  language.  LinguLstically  the  Babylonian 
is  closer  to  the  Hebraic  and  Aramaic  than  the  other  Semitic  lan- 
guages. The  following  classification  seems  preferable,  nam?lv: 
The  North  Semitic,  which  is  represented  by  the  Amoraic,  Aramaic 
and  Ass>TO-Babylonian,  and  the  South  Semitic,  which  is  repre- 
sented by  the  Arabic  and  Ethiopic. 


ORIGINAL   HOME    OF   SEMITIC    CULTURE       85 

If  we  account  for  the  development  of  the  Amorite  cul- 
ture before  the  fourth  or  fifth  millennium  B.C.,  we  are 
so  far  removed  from  the  time  the  Semitic  cradle  rocked 
that  until  we  get  some  glimpses  into  the  early  history 
of  this  culture  before  this  time,  or  even  of  the  Arabic 
before  what  we  now  know,  such  purely  hypothetical 
speculations  can  only  be  taken  for  what  they  are  worth. 
There  is,  however,  no  support  for  the  view  advanced  by 
some  scholars,  that  the  language  of  Palestine  (known  to 
us  as  Hebraic),  in  the  days  of  Abraham,  was  simply  a 
dialect  of  Arabia;  or  that  in  Abraham's  time  the  Ara- 
maeans were  still  a  part  of  the  Arab  race.  Such  theories 
are  wholly  baseless  and  absurd  in  the  light  of  fact  and 
tradition.  If  in  the  main  my  contentions  ai'e  correct,  a 
readjustment  of  the  extravagant  statements  advanced  is 
in  order;  and  especially  in  view  of  what  follows  in  Part 
II. 

The  inscriptions  and  archaeological  finds  of  cotempo- 
raneous  peoples  have  corroborated  in  a  remarkable 
manner  the  early  history  in  the  Old  Testament  of  the 
nations  of  antiquity,  while  at  the  same  time  they  have 
restored  the  historical  backgroimd  and  an  atmosphere 
for  the  patriarchal  period,  so  that  even  a  scientist  can 
feel  that  the  old  Book  has  preserved  not  only  trust- 
worthy traditions  to  be  used  in  the  reconstruction  of 
the  history  of  that  period,  but  also  the  knowledge  of 
veritable  personages  in  the  patriarchs.  Nothing  has 
been  produced  to  show  that  they  are  not  historical ;  and 
on  the  other  hand  every  increase  of  knowledge,  gained 
by  the  spade  or  by  the  skill  of  the  decipherer,  helps  to 


86      AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

dissolve  the  conclusions  of  those  who  have  relegated  the 
patriarchs  to  the  region  of  myth. 

An  interesting  discovery  has  recently  been  made  by 
Prof.  Arthur  Ungnad,  of  the  name  "Abram"  belonging 
to  the  age  when  the  patriarch  lived.^  The  fact  that  the 
name  had  not  been  found  in  the  cuneiform  literature, 
owing  to  the  patriarch's  sojourn  in  Chaldea,  gave  rise 
to  many  different  views;  for  example,  it  was  claimed  that 
it  was  an  idealized  name  created  by  a  late  Hebrew  writer, 
and  meant  "The  sublime  father."  The  discovery  of 
the  name  written  in  tliree  ways,  A-ha-ra-ma,  A-ha-am- 
ra-am,  and  A-ha-am-ra-ma,  puts  this  important  question 
beyond  any  further  discussion.^ 

The  discovery  of  the  divine  name  Yahweh  in  cimei- 
form  literature  also  has  important  bearmgs  on  the  point 
under  discussion.  Contrary  to  the  views  of  those  who 
hold  the  Kenite  theory  concerning  the  origin  of  the 
worship  of  Yahweh,  or  that  it  came  from  a  Canaanitic 
Jdhu,  or  from  the  Babylonian  Ea,  or  that  it  is  a  develop- 
ment from  a  tribal  polytheism  into  henotheism  and  then 
into  monotheism,  etc.,  for  which  there  is  no  historical 
proof,  the  Old  Testament  furnishes  the  only  light  on  the 
subject,  which  is  that  the  name  and  worship  of  Yahweh 
came  from  the  Aramseans.  And  as  Abraham  and  his 
descendants,  as  well  as  his  ancestors,  were  Aramaeans,' 
it  follows  that  the  name  and  worship  of  Yahweh  was 
familiar  to  the  Aramaeans. 

» See  Bet.  zur  Ass.,  VI,  5,  p.  82. 

'  See  also  Part  II. 

'  See  Appendix  on  Ur  of  the  Chaldeas. 


ORIGINAL    HOME    OF    SEMITIC    CULTURE       87 

The  investigations  of  Dr.  William  Hayes  Ward* 
in  connection  with  ancient  seals  have  led  him  to  the 
conviction  that  among  the  figurative  expressions  under 
which  Yahweh  is  represented  in  the  Old  Testament,  there 
are  those  which  point  to  an  Aramaean  origin.  This  conclu- 
sion is  evidenced  by  the  symbolic  representations  under 
which  the  Aramaean  deity  Adad  appears  in  ancient  art. 

The  worship  of  Yahweh  in  the  Old  Testament  is 
largely  identified  with  the  moimtains;  so,  for  example, 
the  Syrians,  in  explaining  their  defeat  to  Benhadad, 
said  concerning  Israel's  deity,  "Their  god  is  a  god  of  the 
hills"  (I  Engs  20:23).  The  stories  of  Smai,  Horeb, 
Moriah,  Carmel  and  Par  an  fm-ther  testify  to  this. 
Yahweh  is  represented  also  as  a  god  of  storms,  thunder 
and  lightning,  as  is  shown  by  many  passages  in  the  Old 
Testament,  particularly  in  the  Psalms  and  Prophets. 
He  is  frequently  regarded  also  as  a  god  of  battles: 
"Yahweh  is  a  man  of  war,"  the  god  of  hosts.  And 
further,  Yahweh  was  represented  symbolically  in  the 
art  as  the  calf  or  yoimg  bull.^  The  golden  calf  that 
Aaron  made,  as  well  as  the  shrines  at  Bethel  and  Dan, 
so  vehemently  denounced  by  Hosea  and  Amos,  are 
indicative  of  this. 

The  same  characteristics  are  found  in  the  art  depict- 
ing the  Aramaean  Adad,  who  in  the  language  of  the 
prophet  concerning  Yahweh,  "treads  on  the  high  places 
of  the  earth."  He  is  the  god  of  the  clouds,  thunder, 
lightning,  rain,  storm,  deluge,  etc.    In  Babylonian  art  he 

^  "The  Origin  of  the  Worship  of  Yahwe,"  in  the  Amer.  Jour,  of 
Sem.  Lang.,  XXV,  p.  175  ff. 

'  American  Journal  of  Semitic  Languages,  p.  181. 


88      AMURRU    HOME    OF   NORTHERN    SEMITES 

is  represented  as  carrying  a  thunderbolt.  As  the  god  of 
war,  he  carries  the  bow,  club  and  ax.  When  Adad  is 
represented  in  his  complete  form,  he  holds  in  his  hand  a 
cord  attached  to  a  ring  in  the  nose  of  a  bull  or  wild  ox. 
He  is  appropriately  designated  "the  divine  heavenly 
bull  {DINGIR  GUD  AN-NA),  the  god  of  Amurru."^ 
These  distinguishing  marks  have  led  Dr.  Ward  to 
remark  that  "  he  cannot  help  believing  that  he  (Adad) 
was  the  pagan  Yahweh  before  Yah weh  emerged  as  the 
universal  god  of  monotheism j^  and  again,  "it  is  not 
unlikely  that  the  monotheistic  worship  of  Yahweh 
originated  in  that  of  Addu.'^' 

Naturally  there  is  no  more  proof  for  saying  that  the 
worship  of  Yahweh  is  derived  from  that  of  Adad,  than 
that  the  worship  of  Adad  came  from  that  of  Yahweh. 
Although  we  are  better  acquainted  with  the  worship  of 
Adad  from  extra  biblical  sources  of  the  early  period, 
because  the  deity  was  adopted  into  the  Babylonian 
pantheon,  still  it  would  be  safer  perhaps  to  say  that  these 
characteristic  marks  which  both  deities  have  in  common 
point  to  their  Aramaean  origin;  and  especially  as  the 
Old  Testament  associates  Yahweh  with  the  Aramaeans, 
and  also  because  the  inscriptions  clearly  show  the  same 
source  for  the  worship  of  Adad.* 

»  Dccouvertes,  XXX,  10. 

'  See  American  Journal  of  Semitic  Languages,  XXV,  p.  185. 

'  See  Cylinders  and  other  Ancient  Oriental  Seals  in  the  Library  of 
J.  Pierpont  Morgan,  p.  19. 

*  Amurru  is  also  tlie  "Lord  of  the  Mountains,"  MU-LU  QAR- 
SAG-GA  GIT,  i.e.,  be-lu  sha-dl-i  (sec  Part  II).  This  is  further  proved 
by  the  use  of  the  ideogram  KUR-CAL  for  Amurru,  which  means 
''Great  mountain." 


ORIGINAL   HOME    OF   SEMITIC    CULTURE       89 

For  some  years  certain  scholars  have  consistently 
maintained  that  the  divine  name  was  to  be  found  in 
several  personal  names  of  the  Hammurabi  period,  as 
Ja^wi-ilu,  etc/  Few,  however,  accepted  this  conclusion. 
But  if  the  name  was  used  prior  to  the  age  of  Abram,  as 
is  inferred  from  the  Old  Testament,  we  should  expect  to 
find  it  in  the  early  cuneiform  literature,  as  well  as  the 
names  of  other  Aramaean  deities.  This  has  turned  out 
to  be  the  case. 

The  name  of  Yahweh  is  found  on  a  tablet  said  to  be 
from  Kish,  in  the  reign  of  Rim-Anum,  who  ruled  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  third  millennium  B.C.  The  tablet  is 
in  the  ^lorgan  Library  Collection,  and  will  be  published 
by  the  Rev.  Dr.  C.  H.  W.  Johns,  Fellow  of  Cambridge 
University.  It  is  found  also  in  another  unpublished 
tablet,  dated  in  the  reign  of  Sumu-abum  of  the  Hammu- 
rabi dynasty,  which  is  in  the  possession  of  Prof.  Delitzsch, 
of  the  University  of  Berlin.  In  both  the  name  occurs  in 
the  oath  formula. 

The  two  deities  usually  mentioned  in  the  oaths  of  the 
contract  tablets  from  Kish  are  Zamama  and  Urash. 
In  these  two  tablets  Ja-wu-um  takes  the  place  of 
Urash.  Urash,  the  god  of  Dilbat,  is  in  all  probability  a 
Western  deity .^  Za-am-ma  (or  Za-mal-mal),  the  god  of 
Kish,  which  is  another  form  of  NIN-IB,  is  also  a  Western 
deity. 

These  tablets,  like  those  from  Dilbat  and  Sippar, 
contain  names    of    AVestern   Semites,    which   make    it 

See  Appendix  on  the  name  Yahweh. 
2  See  Part  II. 


90      AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

quite  reasonable  to  expect  such  a  variation  as  the  use 
of  the  name  Yahweh,  if,  as  represented,  the  deity  was 
Aramaean  or  West  Semitic. 

But,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  name  Yahweh,  when 
compounded  with  elements  in  proper  names,  is  found  in 
the  early  literature  in  connections  which  also  point  to 
Aramaean  or  Amoritish  origin.  It  is  claimed  in  the 
discussion  of  the  name  and  native  country  of  Sargon* 
that  he  was  a  Western  Semite,  perhaps  an  Aramaean. 
The  name  of  his  great-granddaughter  is  Lipush-Jaum. 
According  to  our  present  knowledge,  the  only  conclusion 
at  which  we  can  arrive  is  that  Jaum  represents  the  name 
Yahweh.^  Further,  the  name  of  the  First  dynasty, 
Qali-Jaum,  son  of  Jawum,^  also  contains  this  element. 
Jawum,  which  at  least  is  the  exact  form  of  the  divine 
name,  together  with  JJali-Jaum  are  foreign  names,  and 
in  all  probability  West  Semitic. 

In  considering  these  different  facts  in  connection 
with  the  name  and  worship  of  Yahweh,  it  seems  that  the 
Kenite,  the  Babylonian,  the  Canaanite,  and  all  other 
theories  must  give  way  to  that  which  is  gathered  from 
the  Old  Testament,  namely,  that  the  worship  of  Yahweh 
came  from  the  country  of  the  ancestors  of  Abram,  the 
Aramaean.  Recent  discoveries  thus  furnish  a  greater 
antiquity  for  things  biblical  than  is  usually  accorded  to 
them,  and  point  to  the  ancestral  home  of  Abram,  i.e., 


*  See  Appendix  on  the  name  Sargon. 
'  See  Appendix  on  the  name  Yahweli. 
'  See  Ranke,  Personal  Names,  p.  114. 


ORIGINAL    HOME    OF   SEMITIC    CULTURE       91 

Aram,    which    was    identified    closely    with    Amurru, 
instead  of  Babylonia,  as  the  source  of  Israel's  culture. 

It  is  necessary,  therefore,  to  differ  radically  from  even 
those  who,  like  Professor  Rogers,  say  that  "the  first 
eleven  chapters  of  Genesis  in  their  present  form,  as  also 
in  the  original  documents  into  which  modern  critical 
research  has  traced  their  origin,  bear  eloquent  witness 
to  Babylonia  as  the  old  home  of  the  Hebrew  people, 
and  of  their  collection  of  sacred  stories."^  But,  let 
me  add,  in  appreciation  of  what  the  same  writer  says, 
even  when  he  includes  those  elements  which  he  thinks 
were  borrowed  from  the  Babylonians:  ''When  all 
these  are  added  up  and  placed  together,  they  are  small 
in  number  and  insignificant  in  size  when  compared 
with  all  the  length  and  breadth  and  height  of  Israel's 
literature  "2  But  the  writer  ventures  to  go  even  farther 
and  to  claim  that  the  influence  of  Babylonian  culture 
upon  the  peoples  of  Canaan  was  almost  nil. 

The  story  of  Babel  in  Genesis  at  this  point  becomes 
especially  interesting;  for  in  it  we  may  see  a  reflection  as 
handed  down  by  the  biblical  writer  of  the  movement 
of  the  Semites  from  the  West,  who  made  Babel  a  promi- 
nent center.  "As  they  journeyed  East  they  found  a 
plain  in  the  land  of  Shinar."  Here  these  mountaineers 
used  "brick  instead  of  stone,"  to  which  they  had  been 
accustomed  in  their  native  land;  and  "bitumen" 
instead  of   "mortar."     This  became  naturally  a  city 


^  Rogers,  Religion  of  Bab.  and  Ass.,  p.  219. 
'  Rogers,  ibid.,  p.  226. 


92      AMURRU    HOME    OF   NORTHERN    SEMITES 

sacred  to  their  chief  deity,  Amar,  whose  name  the 
Sumerian  scribes  wrote  in  the  cuneiform  script, 
Amar-uduk. 

It  has  been  asserted  that  the  ziggurrats  or  towers 
in  Babylonia  were  preceded  by  tombs  of  the  gods  in  the 
center  of  fire  necropoles.  This  may  be  correct,  but  the 
name  ziggurrat  points  to  a  Semitic  origin  for  the  tower. 
Also  the  idea  of  the  ziggurrat  being  the  representation 
of  a  mountain  surely  originated  with  a  people  from  a 
mountainous  district. 


PART    II 


AMURRU  m  THE  CUNEIFORM 
INSCRIPTIONS 


Recent  investigations  on  the  part  of  the  writer 

have  resulted  in  the  conviction  that  most  of  the  deities 

of  the  Semitic  Babylonians,  which  have  been  recognized 

by  scholars  as  original  sun-gods,  had  their  origin  in  the 

great  solar  deity  of  the  Western  Semites,  known  as 

Amar  or  Mar  and  Cr,  which  was  written  in  the  script 

of  the  West,  "IDK  or  ^0  and  IIK,  or  n\  also  known 

as  ti^O^.    This  deity,  after  having  been  transplanted 

to  Babylonia  by  the  Semites,  appeared  under  different 

written  forms  in  different  localities,  as  NE-URU-GAL 

at    Cutha,  AMAR-UTUG  at  Babylon,   etc.    This   is 

due  to  the  fact  that  the  Semites  adopted  the  non-Semitic 

cimeiform  script  of  the  Sumerians.     These  Sumerian 

forms  in  time  were  semitized  and  became  Nergal  and 

Marduk,  as  the  Sumerian  EN-LIL,  "  Lord  of  the  LIL,'' 

became   Ellil   and   the    Sumerian    N  IN -GAL,    "Great 

mistress,"  became  Nikkal,  etc.    With  later  streams  of 

immigration  coming  from  the  West,  as,  for  instance,  in 

the  Nisin  dynasty  (third  millennium  B.C.),  the  name 

in  its  original  form  continued  to  be  brought  into  the 

country;  but  coming  in  when  the  early  Sumerian  forms 

of  the  Semitic  names,  as  well  as  the  religion,  had  been 

babylonized,   they    were    treated    as    distinct    deities. 

These,  however,  were  not  admitted  at  once  into  the 

95 


96      AMURRU    HOME    OF   NORTHERN    SEMITES 

Babylonian  pantheon  of  gods,  but  were  treated  for 
centuries  as  alien  deities,  as  is  shown  by  the  fact  that 
the  determinative  for  deity  in  many  cases  was  omitted. 
Naturally  an  important  point  to  be  determined  is 
that  these  movements  from  the  West  actually  took 
place.  In  a  paper  read  before  the  American  Oriental 
Society  in  Philadelphia  (Easter  week,  1907)  the  writer 
referred  to  the  fact  that  at  the  time  of  the  First  dynasty 
of  Babylon  (2000  B.C.),  the  personal  names  show  that 
the  country  was  filled  with  foreigners,  notably  Western 
Semites;  and  also  endeavored  to  show  that  the  names 
of  the  kings  of  the  Isin  dynasty  (third  millennium  B.C.) 
indicate  West  Semitic  influence  upon  Babylonia,  and 
that  the  capital  of  this  dynasty  doubtless  was  a  strong- 
hold of  that  people.  Before  the  paper  appeared  in 
print.  Dr.  Hermann  Ranke,  of  Berlin,  appears  to  have 
reached  similar  conclusions  from  an  entirely  different 
point  of  view.  He  called  attention  to  a  date  on  a  tablet 
which  he  believed  referred  to  the  mvading  Amorites 
at  the  time  of  Libit-Ishtar,  a  ruler  of  this  same  dynasty.* 
The  preceding  dynasty,  namely,  that  of  Ur  {Urumma) 
was  Sumerian.  In  the  reign  of  Gimil-Sin  we  learn  that 
the  king  built  "the  wall  of  the  country  of  the  West," 
which  was  called  Murik  Tidnum,  "the  wall  that  wards 
off  the  Tidnu."  As  we  shall  see  below,  Tidrm  is  another 
name  for  the  land  of  Amurru.  This  fact  points  to  active 
interference  on  the  part  of  the  Amorites  already  at  this 
time.     As  is  usually  understood,  the  rulers  of  the  pre- 

'  See  O.  L.  Z.,  March,   1907,  also  Meyer,  Geschichte  des  Alter- 
turns,  I,  §  416. 


AMURRU    IN    CUNEIFORM    INSCRIPTIONS       97 

ceding  dynasties  were  Semites,  and  were  not  indigenous 
to  the  land  but  came  from  some  Semitic  quarter. 
This  the  writer  holds  was  Amurru. 

As  is  known,  Amurru,  the  name  of  the  land,,,  occurs 
in  the  inscriptions  as  early  as  the  time  of  Sargon,  king 
of  Akkad.^  The  title  of  the  early  Sumerian  rulers, 
LUGAL  AN-UB-DA  TAB-TAB-BA,  and  its  Semitic 
equivalent,  shar  kihrat  arbaHm,  which  being  translated 
means  "king  of  the  four  quarters,''  implies  suzerainty 
over  this  land.  Gudea  mentions  two  mountains  of 
Amurru,  namely,  Subsalla  and  Tidanu,  i.e.,  Tidnu, 
by  which  the  entire  land  apparently  became  known. 
The  kings  of  the  Ur  and  Nisin  dynasties  also  ruled 
over  the  land.  Kudur-Mahug  in  an  inscription  used 
the  title  ADDA  KUR-MAR-TU,^  "suzerain  of  Amurru? 
This  title,  therefore,  included  sovereignty  over  the 
region  ruled  by  the  five  kings  mentioned  in  the  four- 


^  See   especially   Amurram(MAR-TU-am),  V.  B.,  p.  225,  and 
Meyer,  Geschichte  des  Altertums,  §  400. 

'  Rawlinson,  Inscriptions  of  Western  Asia,  I,  p,  2,  No,  III. 

'  The  fact  that  Kudur-Mahug,  otherwise  Icnown  as  ADDA 
Emutbal,  called  himself  ADDA  MARTU  in  the  votive  inscription 
dedicated  to  Nannar,  has  caused  certain  scholars  to  conclude  that 
MAR-TU  is  not  the  so-called  "West-land"  of  the  shores  of  the 
Mediterranean,  but  is  the  name  of  a  Western  district  of  Elam, 
and  probably  another  designation  of  Emutbal.  It  surely  does  not 
follow  because  a  ruler  used  a  different  title  in  another  inscription 
that  the  one  must  be  synonymous  with  the  other.  Compare  the 
change  in  the  titles  of  Sargon  and  Dungi  referred  to  below;  or  the 
fact  that  Hammurabi  in  some  inscriptions  calls  himself  "king  of 
Babylon, "  and  in  one  found  at  Diarbekir,  "king of  Amurru^  Before 
accepting  the  name  MAR-TU  for  West  Elam,  where  a  non-Semitic 
language  was  spoken,  other  proof  must  be  forthcoming. 
7 


98      AAIURRU   HOME   OF   NORTHERN   SEMITES 

teenth  chapter  of  Genesis.  Later  it  became  the  pos- 
session of  Hammurabi  after  his  thirty-first  year.  In 
an  inscription  found  at  Diarbekir,  the  single  title  used 
by  Hammurabi  is  "king  of  Amurru.''^  During  the  First 
d3masty  of  Babylon  many  Amorites  seem  to  have 
dwelt  in  the  vicinity  of  Sippar,  where  there  was  a  city 
called  Amurril.  But  we  cannot  follow  Toffteen/  and 
those  who  hold  the  view,  that  the  Amorites  of  the 
West  emigrated  from  this  place  through  pressure  from 
Elam,  and  in  this  way  the  name  was  transferred  to  the 
West-land.  This  was  a  settlement  of  Amorites,  like 
the  Jewish  settlement  in  the  vicinity  of  Nippur  during 
the  captivity  and  after  it,  having  been  deported  perhaps 
to  that  locality  by  a  predecessor  of  Chedorlaomer  (see 
Appendix  on  "Ur  of  the  Chaldees")- 

This  title  passed  down  to  his  successors;  among  them 
Ammi-ditana  is  mentioned  as  having  enjoyed  it. 
Nebuchadrezzar  I,  Tiglathpileser  I,  Ashurnasirpal  and 
Shalmaneser  II  refer  to  the  land.  Adad-nirari  III 
conquered  Khatti  (Hittite  land),  Amurru,  Tyre,  Sidon 
and  Omri  (Israel).  Sargon  includes  the  Khatti  in  the 
"widely  extended"  land  of  Amurru,  as  well  as  Phoeni- 
cia, Philistia,  Moab,  Ammon  and  Edom.  Ashurbani- 
pal,  Nabonidus  and  Cyrus  also  refer  to  the  land.^ 

In  the  first  and  second  millenniums  B.C.,  the  cunei- 
form inscriptions  lead  us  to  believe  that  Amurru  had 
become  a  general  appellation  for  Syro-Palestine,  a  por- 

*  See  Sayce,  ArchcBology  of  the  Cuneiform  Inscriptions,  p,  143. 

*  Researches  in  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  Geography,  p.  30. 
'See  Toffteen,  ibid.,  p.  29. 


AMURRU    IN    CUNEIFORM    INSCRIPTIONS       99 

tion  of  which  was  controlled  by  the  Hittites;  that  is, 
the  borders  of  Khatti  seem  to  have  been  extended  so 
that  the  rule  embraced  a  considerable  portion  of  what 
was  once  Amurru.  In  the  time  of  Rameses  II  the 
Hittites,  we  learn,  occupied  the  land  of  Amur.  If, 
as  a  people,  the  Amorites  ever  dominated  politically 
that  land  in  an  organized  manner,  their  history  belongs 
to  the  third  or  earlier  millenniums.  It  is  not  unlikely 
that  the  order  was  always  that  of  petty  principalities, 
and  that  the  name  was  generally  regarded  as  a  geo- 
graphical designation  of  the  land. 

To  Delattre^  belongs  the  credit  for  having  deter- 
mined the  Semitic  reading  Amurru  for  the  Sumerian 
MAR-TU,  instead  of  Afiarru.  Jensen^  further  substan- 
tiated the  reading.  The  passage  in  a  hymn  published 
by  Reisner,^  namely,  DINGIR'-MAR-TU{-E)  = 
^A-mur-ru,  as  is  known,  fully  and  definitely  corrobo- 
rated the  reading.  It  would  seem  that  very  early 
DINGIR-MAR-TU  and  KUR-MAR-TU  were  read 
respectively  the  deity  and  country  of  the  Amorites, 
as  the  transliterations,  especially  for  the  latter,  i.e., 
Amurru,  occasionally  contain  an  additional  final  vowel, 
as  if  an  adjectivum  relationis. 

In  the  earliest  inscriptions,  as  we  have  seen,  MAR-TU 

*  Proceedings  of  Society  Biblical  ArchoBology^  1891,  p.  233  ff. 
'  Zeitschrijt  far  Assyriologie,  Vol.  XI,  p.  304,  5. 

'  Sumerisch-hdbylonische  Hymnen,  24,  Rev.  II,  5,  etc. 

*  For  the  benefit  of  those  who  Iiave  not  paid  attention  to 
Semitics,  it  might  be  mentioned  that  what  is  printed  in  capital  letters 
like  DINGIR,  in  italics,  is  Sumerian,  and  what  is  in  smaller  type 
like  iluy  is  Semitic  Babylonian. 


100    AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

is  the  Sumcrian  ideogram  for  the  name  Amurru  and  the 
question  arises,  Why  was  this  combination  of  characters 
selected  to  represent  this  country? 

MAR,  which  is  also  frequently  used  as  the  name  of 
the  land  alongside  of  MAR-TU,^  is  doubtless,  as  has  been 
suggested,  a  shortened  form  of  Amar,  which  became 
Amur  under  the  influence  of  the  labial.^  MAR  is  one 
of  the  names  of  the  sun-deity,  as  will  be  shown  in  the 
pages  which  follow.  As  a  deity  in  personal  names 
imdcr  that  form  in  the  Assyrian  period,  it  occurs  in 
Mar-larimme,  Mari-larim,  Mar-hi'di,  Mar-irrish,  Mar- 
suri,  etc.,'  and  also  in  such  names  as  ^^D*)tD,  etc., 
from  West  Semitic  inscriptions  discussed  farther  on. 
TU  in  Sumerian  has  the  value  erebu,  "to  enter."* 
MAR-TU  like  UD-TU  (or  erib  shamshi),  therefore, 
means  crib  Mar,  "  entering  in  of  Mar'^  (or  Amar, 
i.e.,  "the  setting  light  or  sun").  This,  of  course,  shows 
that  Mar  (=  Amar)  meant  the  "sim"  originally,  and 
in  all  probability  was  the  chief  deity,  the  Shamash  of 
the  Amorites.'  To  the  Babylonian  it  was  also  the  name 
of  the  land,  for  Amurru  was  the  "land  of  the  setting 

»Cf.  Zimmem,  K.  A.  T.',  p.  415,  note  1;  also  TofiFteen,  Ass. 
Bab.  Geog.,  p.  32.  MAR  has  also  the  value  Amurru,  "West," 
alongside  of  IM-MAR-TU,  cf.  Kugler,  Slernkunde  und  Stemdienst, 
p.  23. 

'  Rawlinson,  II,  35  :  19,  is  perhaps  to  be  restored  [MAR]-TU-u 
=  A-ma-nim;  but  cf.  also  the  following  line  A-ru  =  A-ma-rum. 

'  See  Johns,  Assyrian  Deeds  and  Documents. 

*  Cf.  Prince,  Sumerian  Lexicon,  p.  233. 

•In  Job  31  :  26,  IIK,  "sun,"  is  used  instead  of  shemesh  in 
parallelism  w^ith  the  "moon." 


AMURRU    IN    CUNEIFORM    INSCRIPTIONS     101 

sun."  Here  properly  the  Gilgamesh  epic  should  be 
recalled  which  refers  to  the  gate  of  the  setting  sun,  as 
being  located  in  the  land  of  Amurru  at  the  mountain 
Mdshu. 

In  the  earliest  known  inscriptions  of  the  Sumerians 
and  Babylonians  the  West  Semitic  Mar  (or  Amar)  figures 
prominently,  as  is  determined  by  the  fact  that  the  Sume- 
rians wrote  MAR-TU  for  Amurru.  This  shows  that  the 
sun-cult  of  the  West  was  well  established  in  the  earliest 
known  period  of  Babylonian  history,  and  doubtless 
already  had  had  a  long  history  of  development/  This 
might  have  been  inferred  already  from  the  fact  that  the 
earliest  known  rulers  extended  their  conquests  into  the 
region  Amurru. 

Besides  this  ideogram  for  the  deity  Amur  or  Amar, 
another  sign  occurs  in  the  Neo-Baby Ionian  proper 
names,  which  usually  has  been  read  ^UR,  Marduk, 
etc.  It  occurs  in  Amar-ra-pa-%  Amar-a-pa-'  (per- 
haps the  same  as  the  previous  name),  Amar-na-ta-nu 
(son  of  Addu-taqummu^)  and  Amar-slm-al-ti  (whose  son, 
Ilu-arapa,^  also  bears  a  West  Semitic  name).  About 
one-half  of  the  names  with  Amar  are  compounded  with 
foreign  or  West  Semitic  elements,  indicating  unmistak- 
ably that  the  deity  Amar  belongs  in  the  West. 

In  The  Babylonian  Expedition  of  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania  (Vol.  X,  pp.  7  ff.),  the  writer  showed  that 
in  the  Aramaic  reference  notes  scratched  on  the  clay 


»  See  also  Part  I. 

'  See  Tallqvist,  Namenbuch. 

•  See  aay,  B,  E.,  Vol.  VIII. 


102    AMURKU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

tablets,  the  transcription  ^1N,  which  occurs  in  several 
names,  represented  KUR-GAL;  and  that  these  charac- 
ters are  to  be  read  Amurru  =  Awurru  (or  Oru),  and  not 
Bel  or  Shadu-rahU  as  generally  read.  Such  names 
as  Amiirru-balia,^  Amurru-natannu,^  Amurru-nazahi,^ 
Amurru-shama,*  containing  foreign  elements  in  connec- 
tion with  the  name  of  the  deity  Amurru,  seem  to 
substantiate  the  view  that  Amurru  (or  Cru  as  in  Vru- 
milkv'  and  MilkHru,^  see  below)  was  a  foreign  god. 

Peiser^  verified  completely  this  identification,  by 
showing  that  the  name  MAR-TU-erish,  KUR-GAL- 
erish,  and  Amurria  belonged  to  a  single  individual, 
the  latter  being  a  hypochoristicon  with  the  ending  m, 
like  "  Sammy "  from  Samu-el.  In  other  words,  we  get 
the  formula  MAR-TU  =  KUR-GAL  =  Amurru  =  l^ii 
(or  Jjru). 

Of  special  interest  and  importance  is  the  fact  that 
a  single  ideogram  has  the  values  AkkadH,  Amurril  and 
Urtu'^ 

Uri  BUR-BUR  Akkada 

Tidnu  BUR-BUR  Amurril 

Tilla  BUR-BUR  Urtu 

'  Strassmaicr,  Nhk.  66  :  3. 

'  Nbk.  459  :  4. 

'  Nbk.  132  :  2. 

*  Nbk.  42:5. 

»  K.  B.,  II,  p.  90. 

«  Amama  Letters,  K.  B.,  V,  61  :  54,  etc. 

'  Urkunden  aus  der  Zeil  der  driUen  hahylonisch-en  Dynastie,  p. 
VIII. 

"See  Delitzsch,  Ass.  Les.\  Syl.  B,  72-74,  and  Weissbach 
Miscellen,  p.  29. 


AMURRU    IN    CUNEIFORM    INSCRIPTIONS      103 

In  another  text,  instead  of  Tidnu  =  Amiirru,  is  found 
Ari=Amurru}  Tidnu  is  the  name  of  a  mountain  in 
Amurru  mentioned  already  in  the  time  of  Gudea  (see 
above)  .2  Tilla^  is  the  name  of  a  deity,  as  well  as  the 
name  of  a  land  in  the  region  called  Urtu  or  Armenia. 

In  other  words,  the  usual  ideogram  for  the  country 
Vri  or  Akkad  {i.e.,  Babylonia)  stood  also  for  the  coun- 
tries Ari  or  Amurru  and  Urtu  or  Armenia.  Here  should 
be  mentioned  again  the  monument  of  Hammurabi, 
found  at  Diarbekir,  in  Southern  Armenia,  in  which  the 
single  title  used  is  "King  of  t)ru  (Amurru).'^ 

^  See  Meissner,   Ideogramme,   No.   5328. 

2  Cf.  Vor.  Bib.,  I,  p.  70. 

3  Tilla  is  the  name  not  only  of  the  land  but  of  a  deity,  cf .  3u-di- 
ib-Til-la,  Ash-tar-Tll-la  and  Ta-i-Til-la  of  my  B.  E.,  vol.  XV,  and 
A-qar-Til-la  of  B.  E.,  vol.  XIV;  also  cf.  Te-Jii-ip-Til-la  and  Ishtar- 
ki-Til-la,  Pinches,  Journal  of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society,  1897,  p. 
589  ff.,  and  Ti-mi-Til-la,  Orien.  Literaturzeitung ,  1902,  p.  245.  Cf. 
also  Me-Tilla,  chief  of  the  Hittites  in  the  treaty  of  Rameses  II. 
Additional  names  compounded  with  Tilla  have  been  published  re- 
cently by  Ungnad  (B.A.,  VI:  5,  p.  14),  I -H-ir- Til-la,  Mish{1)-ki- 
Til-la,  Shur-ki-Til-la  and  Shi-mi-Til-la.  Others  will  appear  in 
my  forthcoming  volume  of  Temple  Documents.  Bork  rightly  re- 
garded the  first  name  mentioned  above  to  be  Mittannaean,  cf .  0.  L.  Z., 
1906,  p.  591.  This  seems  to  be  corroborated  by  the  names  which  are 
quoted  from  the  tablet  published  by  Pinches.  My  attention  has 
been  called  by  Dr.  A.  T.  Olmstead  to  a  place  Tillah,  mentioned  by 
Layard  (Nineveh  and  Babylon,  p.  41),  at  the  junction  of  the  East 
and  West  Tigris,  which  is  on  the  direct  route  from  Assyria  to  the 
Lake  Van  district.  Another  site  Tela  is  mentioned  by  Ashurnasir- 
pal  (I,  li.  113  f.),  which  later  was  called  Constantia  and  now 
Viranshehir,  between  Urfa  and  Mardin  and  S.  E.  of  Diarbekir. 
The  ruins  are  important,  but  not  early.  Olmstead  thinks  the 
Assyrian  site  of  this  city  is  to  be  fixed  to  the  N.  W.  at  the  near-by 
mound  of  Tell  Gauran. 


104   AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

An  important  argument  for  the  movement  of  the 
Amorites  into  Babylonia  is  to  be  found  in  this  fact,  that 
the  name  of  that  land  in  the  third  and  fourth  millenniums 
before  Christ,  after  the  Semites  had  entered,  is  the  same 
as  the  name  of  the  country  from  which  they  came,  or, 
in  other  words,  the  Amorite  land  called  Amurru  or 
Vru  was  geographically  extended  so  that  it  included 
that  part  of  the  Euphrates  valley  occupied  by  the 
Semitic  Babylonians. 

The  fact  that  Akkad  or  Northern  Babylonia  is  called 
Uri,  and  that  Amurru  is  called  An,  raises  the  question 
whether  there  is  a  connection  between  Amurru  and  Uri 
or  Art.  We  have  seen  that  in  the  late  period  the  Aramaic 
equivalent  for  Amurru  which  is  scratched  on  cuneiform 
tablets  is  'IIX.  The  representation  of  the  Babylonian 
m  by  the  Aramaic  w,  or  vice  versa,  is  well  known;  for 
example,  tJ^1J2^  is  written  in  Aramaic  for  Shaniash, 
JVD  for  Simanu,  and  pJl*)N  for  argamanu.  Perhaps  the 
most  striking  illustration  of  this  is  the  transcription 
of  the  Hebrew  ^^^^  by  Jdmn,  in  Babylonian.* 

Naturally  it  is  possible  that  the  Aramaic  equivalent 
"IIX  for  Amurru  was  pronounced  by  the  Aramaeans 
Awur,  although  ordinarily  w  in  such  instances  became  a 
vowel  letter,  as  'or  for  11N,  "  light,''  etc.  In  Babylonian 
the  elision  oi  a.  w  between  two  vowels,  after  which  a 
monopthongizing   of    the   vowels   takes   place,   is    well 

'  Sec  Appendix  on  the  name  Jahwch.  The  phonetic  change  of  m 
to  the  semi-consonant  u,  ixitcr  which  it  frequently  disappears,  is 
well  known,  cf.  shumdti  =  shu(Ui,  etc.  This  is  due,  of  course,  to  the 
fact  that  the  m  was  sounded  like  w. 


AMURRU    IN    CUNEIFORM    INSCRIPTIONS      105 

established,  cf.  iniXljf  from  inawuji,,  imtiXt  from  imtawut, 
etc/  The  Babylonian  Uru  Hrru  is  doubtless  the  same 
word.  The  fact  that  D^C^'^1^^  is  written  Ursalimmu 
in  cuneiform,  and  the  West  Semitic  name  ^'7D"11K 
is  written  Uru-miUzi,  etc.,  make  it  quite  probable  that 
the  name  was  read  t)ru  or  Vrru.  This  is  the  way  the 
Talmudic  form  NHIX,  which  is  the  late  form  of 
AmurrHj  is  read  (see  below).  This  being  granted,  it  is 
possible  to  conclude  that  the  word  written  Amurru  and 
Amuru,  which  represents  the  'Amdr  of  the  West,  was 
pronounced  Awuru  by  the  late  Babylonians,  and  that 
this  became  Vru.  In  other  words,  we  have  the  formula 
Amurril=  Vrru  or  tlru. 

The  question  arises,  can  this  be  said  to  hold  true  also 
for  the  early  period?  In  the  early  inscriptions  there  are 
several  words  written  with  w  which  have  m  in  the  later 
period.  This  rests  entirely  upon  the  reading  of  the 
character  PI  as  having  the  values  wa,  wi,  wu,  and  we. 
Formerly  the  sign  was  read  with  the  values  ma,  mi,  mu,  me, 
etc.  The  stems  or  words  which  occur  in  the  early  period 
that  show  this  change  are  awelu,  awdtu,  J^dwiru,  naivdru, 
and  a  verbal  form  uwaeiranni.  It  is,  therefore,  main- 
tained that  the  stems  originally  contained  w,  which 
later  became  m.  This  necessitates  the  assumption  that 
the  change  from  w  io  m  had  already  taken  place  in  the 
Hammurabi  period,  for  in  the  contract  literature,  which 
more  clearly  represents  the  spoken  language,  such  names 

^  Cf.  Delitzsch,  Assyrische  Grammatik,  p.  118;  Ungnad,  Babylon- 
isch  assyrische  Grammatik,  p.  47;  and  Meissner,  Assyrische  Gram- 
matik, p.  51. 


106    AMURRU    HOME    OF   NORTHERN    SEMITES 

are  found  as  Namratum,  which  is  considered  to  belong 
to  the  stem  nawdru;^  Shamash-li-wi-ir ,  the  father  of 
Ihgatum,  written  Shamash-li-me-ri,^  and  A-wi-ir-tum, 
written  A-me-ir-rum.^  In  the  Cassite  period,  with  the 
exception  of  an  example  like  A-wi-lu-tum,*  these  words, 
as  far  as  they  occur,  have  m. 

This  change  of  consonant  is  in  reversed  order  from 
that  of  the  late  period.  Considering  also  that  initial  w 
of  the  early  period,  as  in  warad,  etc.,  is  dropped  and  also 
w  is  dropped  between  two  vowels,  as  in  Jitrtu,  iji,ir  from 
Jiawdru,  and  that  there  is  practically  no  support  from 
the  cognate  languages  for  the  view  that  to  is  original  in 
these  stems,  except  the  late  Aramaic  NIH,  which  it 
is  claimed  is  the  stem  of  awdtii,  it  seems  as  if  the  last 
word  has  not  been  written  on  the  subject.  Moreover,  if 
in  the  late  period  the  m  of  Amurru,  amelii,  and  perhaps 
amatu  was  pronounced  like  w]  and  amelu,  amdtu,  and 
the  other  words  contained  w  in  the  early  period,  it  is 
not  improbable  that  Amurru  was  also  pronounced 
Awurru  in  the  early  period.  Yet  it  must  be  admitted 
that  the  absolute  proof  of  the  identification  of  amilr 
with  Uru  in  the  early  Babylonian  period,  as  well  as  in 
the  West  Semitic  inscriptions,  has  not  yet  been  furnished. 

It  is  very  inviting  to  suggest  that  perhaps  this  change 
of  consonants  was  due  to  dialectical  differences  in  the 
languages  from  the  West,  of  which  all  traces  are  lost. 

>  See  Ungnad.  B.  A.,  VI,  5,  p.  127. 

» See  Ranke,  P.  N.,  p.  145. 

'  Sec  Poebel,  B.  E..  VI,  pi.  2,  4:    1,  12,  16,  22  and  8  :  14. 

*  See  Clay, -S.  ^.,  XIV,  58  :  1. 


AMURRU    IN    CUNEIFORM    INSCRIPTIONS      107 

This  would  obviate  the  necessity  of  assuming  that  the 
original  and  the  later  stems,  nawdru  and  namdru,  were 
both  in  use  in  the  Hammurabi  period;  and  this  would 
also  account  for  such  synonyms  as  'amdru  and  'awdru} 
On  this  supposition  the  identification  of  the  West 
Semitic  stem  from  which  the  word  "Amorite"'  comes 
with  *11K,  would  become  reasonable.  However,  while 
the  other  considerations  seem  to  support  the  view  that 
the  differences  are  dialectical,  and  it  would  throw  much 
welcome  light  on  the  subject,  it  is  here  offered  only  as  a 
plausible  conjecture. 

The  word  for  ''  West,  sunset, "  etc.,  in  the  Babylonian 
Talmud  is  'Vrya  (KHW*)  =  AwurrU  =  AmurrH.^  In 
this  connection  we  are  reminded  of  the  Talmudic  'tJr 
niN),  "sunset,  twilight,  evening,''  and  even  'Crta' 
(NnniN),  "night,''  and  the  difficulty  the  Jews  in  Baby- 
lonia experienced  in  trying  to  imderstand  how  'C'r  (IIN*), 
which  ordinarily  means  "light,"  in  this  connection 
meant  "darkness"  or  "the  West."  In  the  Babylonian 
Talmud  the  question  is  asked,  "Why  is  the  West  called 
'Vrya?  {tmM^,  variant  "IIN),"  and  the  answer  was 
because  it  means  divine  air  (variant,  light),  meaning 
Palestme.^    In  other  words,  they  did  not  appreciate  the 

» See  Delitzsch,  Prologomena,  p.  28;  and  Halevy,  in  Muss-Arnolt, 
Assyrian  Dictionary,  p.  52.  The  fact  that  among  the  values  of  the 
cuneiform  MASH,  we  find  amdru  and  amtri  (perhaps  the  same  as 
Amir,  "summit,"  in  Hebrew)  alongside  of  shamshu,  ellu,  ihhu, 
namaru,  etc.,  seems  to  support  the  view  of  these  scholars  that 
'amdru  and  'awdru  are  synonyms. 

'  See  Meissner,  Supplement,  p.  10. 

•  See  Jastrow,  Talmudic  Dictionary,  p.  34. 


108   AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

origin  of  the  term.  While  'Vr  C^IN),  the  name  of  the 
country,  means  "light,"  to  the  Semite  livmg  in  the 
East,  i.e.j  Babylonia,  it  also  meant  "evening,  darkness, 
West, "  etc.,*  because  Amurru  or  Vru  was  the  land  of 
the  West,  or  of  the  sunset,  i.e.,  the  land  of  the  "going 
in  of  the  sun. '' 

OTHER  NAMES   OF  AMAR. 

The  chief  arguments  for  the  view  that  the  movement 
was  eastward  into  Babylonia  are  to  be  found  in  the  fact 
that  the  culture  of  the  Amorites  was  carried  into  that 
land.  This,  as  we  have  seen,  shows  itself  in  such  legends  as 
Marduk-Tiamtu,  Gilgamesh,  etc.,  but  especially  in  the 
worship  of  the  great  solar  deity  or  deities  of  the  West  by 
the  Babylonians.  Besides  the  names  Armir  or  Mar  and 
Amur,  already  discussed,  the  following  variant  forms  of 
the  name  of  this  same  deity,  considered  in  connection 
with  the  theory  concerning  the  way  they  arose, 
strengthens  the  thesis  here  maintained. 


^  D'"i«  of  Isaiah  24  :  15,  is  usually  translated,  ''region  of 
light,"  "East,"  of.  Buhl-Gesenius,  Hebrew  Dictionary.  It  is  quite 
natural  to  assume  that  the  word  niK  in  Palestine  should  mean 
"East,"  i.e.,  the  place  of  the  rising  of  the  light,  and  especially  by 
reason  of  an  antithesis  with  tlie  word  "isles,"  which  were  in  the 
West.  However,  as  Dip  is  the  usual  word  for  "East,"  and  the 
word  in  question  means  "West"  in  Aramaic,  it  is  quite  probable 
that  the  meaning  is  the  same  in  Hebrew.  It  must  be  noticed  that 
the  phrase  which  follows,  referring  to  the  "isles  of  the  sea,"  can  just 
as  well  be  understood  as  being  parallel,  which  would  require  the 
meaning  "West." 


AMURRU   IN   CUNEIFORM   INSCRIPTIONS     109 

URU. 

A  name  of  the  solar  deity  of  the  West,  as  mentioned 
above,  was  Oru.  This  name  appeared  in  a  number  of 
variations,  due  to  the  different  characters  employed  in 
writing  it.  In  considering  them  it  is  necessary  con- 
stantly to  bear  in  mind  that  in  representmg  Semitic 
words  the  Sumerian  scribes  employed  ideograms  irre- 
spective of  their  value  in  the  Sumerian  language.  For 
example,  there  were  a  number  of  different  signs,  meaning 
respectively  "city,''  "dwelling,"  "servant,"  etc.,  all 
of  which  were  pronounced  URU.  In  writing  this  name 
of  the  god  of  the  Semitic  hordes  that  came  from  the  West, 
the  Sumerians  used  these  and  other  signs  which  were 
pronounced  exactly  the  same  as  the  name  of  the  deity. 

In  Ranke's  work.  Personal  Names  of  the  Hammurabi 
Dynasty,  there  are  a  large  number  of  names  compounded 
with  the  deity  Urra,  the  god  of  Cutha,  who  is  identified 
with  Nergal.  In  the  tablets  of  the  Ur  and  Nisin  dynas- 
ties, no  less  than  fourteen  different  names  are  com- 
pounded with  this  element  Urra  (written  NIT  A,  which 
has  the  value  ur,  see  below,  with  the  phonetic  comple- 
ment ra)}    In  the  name  of  the  founder   of  the   Isin 


*  See  Huber,  Personennamen  aus  der  Zeit  der  Konige  von  Ur 
und  Nisin,  who  reads  Uru-ra.  Although  he  places  the  element  in 
the  list  of  deities,  he  reads  ardu,  and  translates  "servant."  Cf. 
ibid.,  p.  170.  Ranke,  ibid.,  p.  208,  has  shown  that  the  character 
NIT  A  also  had  the  value  ur.  This  element  is,  therefore,  to  be  read 
Ur-ra,  and  the  names  are  to  be  read  Urra-bdni,  "Ur  is  creator"; 
Urra-BA'TJL,  "Ur  has  given  life,"  etc. 


110   AMURRU    HOME    OF   NORTHERN    SEMITES 

dynasty,  Ishhi-Urra,  both  elements  seem  to  be  West 
Semitic/ 

In  these  same  texts  there  is  also  a  deity  Uru  or  C/r, 
written  NIT  A  without  the  phonetic  complement  ra, 
and  also  USH.^  Here  should  be  mentioned  also  the 
name  NITA{ov  GIR)-A-MU,^  which  probably  is  to 
be  read  Ura{a)-iddin,  "  Vra  has  given, ''  or  Cra-apil- 
iddin,  ''  Cra  gave  a  son, "  unless  MU  in  the  early  period 
does  not  have  the  value  nadanu. 

This  discussion  throws  additional  light  upon  the  king's 
name  now  generally  read  Warad-Sin  or  Arad-Sin,  and 
identified  by  some  with  Arioch  of  the  fourteenth  chapter 
of  Genesis.  The  identification  is  highly  plausible, 
because  Warad-Sin  was  the  king  of  Larsa,  which  city 


^  Ishbi  is  a  Babylonianized  form  of  a  West  Semitic  element, 
cf.  Ja-ash-hi-i-la,  found  in  Ranke,  Personal  Names,  p.  144.  132^"  of 
2  Samuel   21  :  16,  may  also  represent  the  element. 

2  Ruber,  Personeniiamen,  p.  57,  note  1,  grouped  these  together, 
and  says  =  ardu,  "servant."  URU-DINGIR-RA  translated  Arad- 
Hi,  "servant  of  god,"  makes  sense,  but  something  seems  to  be 
wrong  with  the  common  URU-MU  (=  URU-iddin),  if  trans- 
lated "a  servant  has  given";  or  URU-LIG-GA,  which  Ruber, 
feeling  that  ardu  cannot  be  correct,  translates  "The  strong  URU.'' 
Further,  such  names  as  GAL(Amclu)-URU,  "man  of  servant," 
GIR-URU,  "slave  of  servant, "  and  DUMU-URU,  "son  of  servant, " 
would  give  strange  meanings  if  URU  were  translated  "Ivnecht." 
Habcr  appreciated  this,  and  added  that  "In  many  names  URU  =- 
URU-RA  seems  to  have  been  used  as  an  equivalent  for  a  god's 
name,  or,  he  asks,  is  it  a  synonym  of  abdu,  "servant"?  Unques- 
tionably we  have  here  also  the  name  of  the  god  Uru,  and  the 
names  mean  "Uru  has  given,"  "Uru  is  mighty,"  "servant  of 
Oru"  and  "the  son  of  tyru." 

'  Scheil,  Manishtusu,  T>.  5  :  2. 


AMURRU    IN    CUNEIFORM    INSCRIPTIONS      111 

is  identical  with  EUasar  of  the  Old  Testament,  over 
which  Arioch  ruled.  He  was  also  a  cotemporary  of 
Amraphel/  the  HammuraH  of  the  inscriptions,  and  his 
fatlier;  Kudur-Mabug,  the  king  of  Emutbal,  or  Elam, 
was  king  of  Syria  and  Palestine  at  this  particular  time, 
which  is  in  strict  accordance  with  Genesis,  where  we  learn 
that  Elam  was  the  suzerain  power  in  that  land.  The 
identification  is  based  especially  upon  the  fact  that  the 
second  element  of  the  name  can  be  read  Aku  as  well  as 
Sin,  and  that  the  first  character,  read  Ardu,  has  also 
the  dialectical  value  Eri, 

These  facts,  which  are  well  known,  have  been  accepted 
by  a  large  number  of  scholars,  but  some  seem  to  exercise 
more  than  ordinary  critical  caution  with  reference  to 
the  identification.  In  the  first  place,  the  name  list  of 
the  Isin  and  Ur  dynasties  show  that  Aku  or  Agu  was 
frequently  used  in  personal  names.^  Further,  in  these 
Sumerian  centers  it  cannot  be  shown  by  phonetically 
written  examples  that  the  element  was  read  Wardu  or 
Ardu  in  the  early  period.  In  all  probability  it  was 
read  Ur  or  Eri.  Where  the  element  is  followed  by  the 
name  of  a  god,  although  another  translation  is  possible, 
namely,  "  Cru  is  Aku/'  we  would  naturally  translate 
"servant  of  Aku.''     At  the  same  time,  the  fact  that 


*  Since  the  appearance  of  my  Light  on  the  Old  Testament  from 
Babel,  Thureau-Dangin  has  shown  that  Warad-Sin  and  Rim-Sin 
were  two  personages,  both  being  sons  of  Kudur-Mabug. 

'Soe  Huber,  Personennamen,  p.  167;  also  cf.  A-ku-i-lum  and 
A-ku-Ea  of  the  Manishtusu  Obelisk. 


112    AMURRU    HOME    OF   NORTHERN    SEMITES 

there  is  an  Elamite  deity  Eria^  must  not  be  lost  sight 
of;  and  especially  as  the  kmg's  father,  Kudur-Mabug, 
was  ruler  over  Emutbal,  a  name  of  or  part  of  Elam. 
Moreover,  it  seems  to  me  that  the  only  conclusion  at 
which  we  can  arrive  is,  that  the  ruler's  name  was  not 
pronounced  Arad-Sin,  but  Uri{or  EriyAku. 

Two  other  ideograms  which  have  the  reading  tJru  are 
found  in  names  of  the  early  period,  Vri{BUR-BUR)-DA^ 
and  Vru-DA.^  Huber^  says  "  Uru  =  the  holy  city,  a 
god's  name(?).''  While  I  question  the  reading  dlu, 
"city,''  it  must  be  recalled  that  there  is  a  deity  or 
epithet,  A-li,  frequently  found  in  the  names  of  the  First 
dynasty,  e.g.,  A-li-ba-ni-shu,  "Ali  is  his  creator,"  etc.,* 
and  also  that  the  name  of  a  deity  often  appears  as  sub- 
stitutes for  the  patron  deity  in  names.  Very  probably, 
however,  we  have  here  also  the  name  of  the  deity  Vru. 
With  this  understanding  the  above  names  make  sense. 

The  names  of  the  early  kings,  Vru-MU-USH  ^  and 

*  See  Hinke,  Nebuchadrezzar  I,  p.  222. 

*  See  Cuneiform  Texts,  X,  24,  14,313,  Ob.  1. 

^  ORU  in  the  latter  means  "city"  in  Sumerian.  Huber, 
Personennamen,  p.  56,  reads  the  name  Itti-ali{1),  "with  a  city." 
Also  Uru{URU)-MU,  he  reads  dlu-iddin,  which  translated  would 
be  "the  city  has  given."  Uru(URU)-ki-bi  he  translates  "Die 
Stadt  spricht";  Uru{URU)-KA-GI-NA  he  translates  "Die  Stadt 
verstummt(?)";  Uru{URU)-NI -BA-AGA,  "Seine  Stadt  ist 
Liebling;"  Uru{URU)-BA-SAG-SAG  =  dlu-udammiq,  etc. 

*  Cf.  ibid.,  p.  189. 

»  See  lists  in  Ranke,  Personal  Names,  his  B.  E.,  vol.  VI,  pt.  1, 
and  Poebel,  B.  E.,  vol.  VI,  pt.  2. 

*  Perhaps  mush  is  Semitic,  cf .  'IS^ID,  etc.,  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. Kjng,  Proceedings  of  Society  of  Biblical  Archaeology,  vol. 
XXX,  1908,  p.  239.  suggests  the  reading  Ri-mu-ush. 


AMURRU    IN    CUNEIFORM    INSCRIPTIONS      113 

Cru-KA-GI-NA,  which  would  be  equivalent  to  the 
Semitic  IkHn-pi-Vru,  "true  or  established  is  the  word  of 
Vru,"  receive  new  light.^  This  reading  of  URU=Vru 
may  also  throw  welcome  light  on  the  title  of  Sargon, 
namely,  sJiar-URU,  hitherto  considered  part  of  the  name 
and  read  Shargani-shar-dli,  and  more  recently  Shar- 
Gani-sharri  (see  Appendix  on  "The  Name  of  Sargon"). 

This  discovery  of  additional  forms  under  which  the 
god  Vru  occurs  by  no  means  exhausts  the  occurrences 
of  the  name  in  the  early  literature,  it  being  the  purpose 
to  give  simply  the  various  writings  of  the  name;  but 
from  these  considerations  we  are  forced  to  recognize 
the  prominence  of  this  deity  Vru  in  the  early  period. 

In  the  early  Sumerian  and  Semitic  inscriptions, 
therefore,  the  name  is  written  UR-RA,  UR-A,  NIT  A 
(more  correctly  UR),  USH  (perhaps  better  URU),  VRU 
(dlu),  BUR-BUR  (=  Uri),  KUR-GAL  (=  Uru);  URU 
(shuhtu),  see  below,  and  BIL-LIL,  see  below,  all 
of  which  =  Vru,  Vri,  Vra  or  Urra;  and  perhaps  also 
MAR-TU  {^Vru). 

This  solar  deity  throughout  the  early  period  must 
have  been  recognized  as  foreign,  because  until  the  time 
of  Hammurabi  it  did  not,  as  Ranke^  has  noted,  have 
the  determinative  for  god.'*    Just  as  the  scribe  of  the 


^  For  similar  names,  see  Ranke,  Personal  Names. 

2  If  the  name  Uru-KA-GI-NA  of  the  early  ruler  of  Shirpurla 
contains  the  name  Oru,  it  is  possible  also  that  A-KUR-GAL,  of  the 
same  dynasty,  contains  the  name  or  an  epithet  of  the  same  deity. 

^  Personal  Names,  p.  208. 

^ There  are,  however,  exceptions,  as  GAL-^UR-RA,  Reissner, 
Urkunden,  94,  I,   35. 
8 


114    AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

Cassite  documents  at  Nippur,  as  a  rule,  did  not  prefix 
the  determinative  to  the  names  of  the  Cassite  deities 
(with  the  exception  of  Shuqamuna,  who  had  been 
introduced  into  the  Babylonian  pantheon)  in  the  same 
way,  the  Sumerian  scribes  in  the  early  period  probably 
regarded  this  god  of  the  Amorites  as  foreign.  This,  it 
seems  to  be  evident,  was  done  because  of  the  religious 
prejudices  of  the  scribes.  And  yet  it  must  be  borne  in 
mind  that  such  deities  as  Sin  or  Nannar  in  this  as  well 
as  the  earlier  period  are  frequently  written  without  the 
determinative.  The  Legend  of  Urra,  which  echoes 
severe  conflicts  waged  against  certain  Babylonian 
cities  by  some  rival  power,  also  points  to  a  foreign  dis- 
trict over  which  the  god  presided. 

It  may  be  of  interest  to  add  that  the  earliest  inscribed 
object  dedicated  to  the  god  Urra,  is  a  vase  which  is  in 
the  Morgan  Library  Collection.  It  is  dedicated  by  or 
for  a  son  of  Lugal-kisalsi,  who  belongs  perhaps  to  the 
fourth  millennium  B.  C.^  The  name  of  the  god  is  written 
DINGIR  BIL-LIL,  which,  according  to  Rawlinson,  IV, 
5,  66a,  is  to  be  read  Urra. 

NERGAL. 

Nergal,  the  patron  deity  of  Cutha,  is  also  a  solar 
deity,^  who  in  the  late  period  is  the  god  of  the  burnmg  heat 
of  the  sun,   or  the  god  of  the  all-destroying  midday 

»See  Banks,  "A  Va.se  Inscription  from  Warka,"  American 
Journal  of  Semitic  Languages,  XXI,  p.  63. 

2  See  Jensen,  Kosmologie,  p.  484  f.;  Zimmern,  K.  A.  T},  p.  412, 
and  Jastrow,  Rd.  Bab.  und  Aas.,  p.  157. 


AMURRU    IN    CUNEIFORM    INSCRIPTIONS     115 

sun.  The  great  heat  of  the  sun  in  Babylonia  has  a  highly 
destructive  power,  which  doubtless  gave  rise  to  the 
attributes  attached  to  this  deity  when  he  became  the 
god  of  pestilence,  death  and  the  underworld,*  One 
of  the  Sumerian  ideograms  for  the  deity  is  NE-URU- 
GAL,  which  gave  rise  to  the  familiar  Nergal.  Scholars 
have  considered  this  ideogram  to  mean  "  Lord  of  the  great 
dwelling''  (i.e.,  Hades).  Haupt,  following  Delitzsch,^ 
and  others  have  thus  regarded  it.'  In  the  light 
of  these  investigations,  there  can  be  little  doubt  that 
this  sign  URU,  which  ordinarily  has  the  meaning 
"dwelling,"  was  selected  by  the  Sumerian  scribes  at 
Cutha,  as  mentioned  above,  simply  because  it  represented 
the  sound  Cm.  The  last  two  elements  of  the  name 
would  then  mean  "great  Vru. ''  The  name  of  the  god  is 
frequently  found  written  in  this  abbreviated  form,  as 
U-ri-gal-la,*  Urra-gal,  etc.  Further,  the  first  element 
NE^  does  not  seem  to  mean  "lord,''*  but  nUru,  " light, "^ 
although  it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  meaning 
"Lord  Vru/'  if  NE  is  translated  ^Mord,"  would  be 
parallel  to  "King  C'm"  (i.e.,  LVGAL-URU),  another 
name  of  this  deity.      The  name  then  of  this  Amor  it  e 


^  See  Jensen,  Kosmologie,  pp.  476-487. 

2  American  Journal  of  Philologij,  VIII,  p.  274,  and  Proceedings 
of  American  Oriental  Society,  October,  1887,  XI. 
'See  also  Zimmeru,  K.  A.  T.\  p.  412. 

*  Strassmaier,  Nhk.  305  :  4, 

*  In  the  Naram-Sin  inscription  found  in  Susa  a  deity  NIN-N^- 
URU{UNU)  occurs,  cf.  Thureau-Dangin,  Vor.  Bib.,  I,  p.  168. 

'  The  sign,  however,  has  the  value  gashru ;  cf .  Briinnow,  List. 
'  Cf,  Meissuer,  Seltene  Ideogramme,  No.  6920. 


116   AMURRU   HOME   OF   NORTHERN   SEMITES 

sun-god,  when  written  by  the  Sumerian  scribes  at  Cutha, 
meant  ''The  light  of  the  great  Oru/'  or  perhaps  ''Lord 
Urugal." 

The  deity  ^LUGAL-URU  has  also  been  identified 
with  Nergal,  as  above.  In  a  passage  from  Rawlinson, 
Inscriptions  of  Western  Asia,^  we  seem  to  have  proof 
that  this  deity  is  from  Amurru.  It  reads :  ^Shar-ra-pu  = 
DINGIR  LUGAL-UR-RA  MAR-KI,  i.e.,  "The  deity 
Sharrapu  (the  burner)  =  Lugal-Urra  (Lord  Vru)  of 
Amurru.  "^ 

MARDUK. 

Another  striking  proof  of  the  transmission  is  to  be 
seen  in  the  name  of  the  god  Marduk,  whose  solar  charac- 
ter is  attested  by  Berosus,  which  was  first  pointed 
out  by  Sayce/  After  Hammurabi  placed  this  god  of 
light  at  the  head  of  the  pantheon,  and  made  him  sup- 
plant the  other  gods,  his  solar  features  were  over- 
shadowed by  the  many  other  attributes  with  which  he 
was  invested,  and  as  a  consequence  they  were  more  or 
less  lost  sight  of. 

The  deity  under  the  name  Marduk  is  not  known  in 
the  Hebrew  of  the  early  period,  and  with  one  exception, 
i.e.,  D I -Marduk,  the  name  does  not  occur  in  the  Amarna 
letters.  This  is  significant,  and  shows,  as  stated  (p.  36), 
that  the  supposed  great  influence  exerted  by  Babylonian 

» V,  46c-d,  22. 

2  Cf.  K.  A.  T},  p.  415,  note  I. 

»  Trans.  Soc.  Bib.  Arch.,  1893,  II,  p.  246;  cf.  also  Jensen, 
Kosmologie,  p.  88. 


AMURRU    IN    CUNEIFORM    INSCRIPTIONS     117 

culture  upon  the  West  is  more  or  less  a  myth,  since 
this  deity,  who  was  at  the  head  of  the  Babylonian 
pantheon  for  more  than  a  half  millennium  prior  to 
the  Amarna  period,  the  god  that  Hammurabi 
made  ^  supplant  Ellil,  lord  of  lands,  and  to  whom 
was  given  the  attributes  of  the  other  gods,  is  scarcely 
known  by  that  name  in  Palestine  and  Syria.  Hence  it 
follows  that  the  original  name  of  the  god,  if  indigenous 
in  the  West,  must  have  been  different;  in  which  case 
it  is  reasonable  to  inquire  whether  the  deity  cannot  be 
DINGIR-MARTU,  the  deity  of  Amurru,  perhaps  also 
known  as  Vru.  In  this  connection  the  personal  name 
U-ri-Marduk,  '' Uri  is  Marduk,"  of  the  Cassite  period, 
is  most  interesting,*  but  especially  the  formula  AMAR- 
UTU  =  ^A-ma-ru.' 

The  Sumerian  scribes  in  Babylonia  wrote  the  name 
of  this  deity  AMAR-UTU  or  AMAR-UTUG,  Some 
scholars  have  proposed,  in  order  to  account  for  the 
writing  Marduk  or  Maruduk,  that  the  second  character 
is  to  be  read  UTUG.  This  is  quite  reasonable,  for  there 
is  a  sign  having  the  value  U-tu-ki,  which  also  means 
the  god  Shamash  (^UTU).'     UTU  may  have  the  value 


'  See  Clay,  B.  E.,  vol.  XV,  p.  45. 

^Cf.  Brunnow,  List  11,566.  This  is  equivalent  to  Avaru  = 
niK  =  Cru.  Cf.  here  also  LUGAL-UDDA,  quoted  as  an  epithet 
of  Marduk  by  Jensen,  K.  B.,  VI,  562.  Of  course,  UDDA  has  also 
the  value  Uru.  Now  LUGAL-URRU  is  another  name  of  Nergal 
(see  above),  in  which  case  we  have  direct  evidence  of  the  connection 
between  Nergal  and  Marduk. 

'  See  Brunnow,  List,  No.  12,219. 


118   AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

utuk,  for  it  is  well  known  that  a  final  G,  including  the 
vowel,  in  Sumerian  is  often  apocopated.* 

Jensen  explains  AMAR-UT  to  mean  "the  son  of  the 
sun."^  This  explanation,  however,  is  based  on  a  frag- 
ment of  questionable  value.  Pinches'  explains  AMAR- 
UDUG  to  mean  " the  brightness  of  the  day. "  Hommel^ 
considers  AMAR  to  mean  "young  wild  ox,"  which 
explanation  he  feels  is  confirmed  by  one  of  the  dates  of 
Bur-Sin,  where  his  name  is  written  Amar-Sin.^  Sayce* 
explains  the  name  as  having  a  punning  etymology, 
Amar-utuk,  "heifer  of  the  goblin.'' 

It  is  possible  to  understand  how  a  deity  like  Marduk 
could  have  an  epithet,  "Son  of  Shamash;''  but  it  does 
not  seem  appropriate  to  explain  the  name  of  the  patron 
deity  of  Babylon  in  that  way.     And  notwithstanding 


*  See  Leander,  Sumerische  Lehnw drier,  p.  34. 

2  Cf.  A'.  5.,  VI,  p.  562.  ''AMAR-UT-mar  =  jmru  =  'Jiinges'- 
mdri-sJiamashu,  d.  i.  ein  'Sonnenkind'  oder  'Sonnensohn'  der 
Cotter,  aber  nicht  'Sonne'  schlechthin." 

^  Old  Testament  in  the  Light  of  the  Historical  Inscriptions,  etc., 
p.  54. 

*  Sumerian  Lesestiicke,  p.  51. 

^  It  is  quite  evident  that  the  names  of  both,  the  son  of  Dungi 
of  the  Ur  dynasty,  and  the  son  of  Ur-NIN-IB  of  the  Isin,  are  not 
to  be  read  Bur-Sin;  and  designated,  as  is  usually  done,  Bur-Sin  I, 
and  Bur-Sin  II.  In  every  instance  where  the  former  occurs,  the 
sign  AMAR  is  written,  cf.  C.T.,  XXI,  24,  25,  27,  and  Hilprecht, 
B.E.,I,  pt.  1,  20,  22,  XX,  47  :  3,  etc.,  whereas  the  latter  name  is 
written  with  BUR,  cf.  B.  E.,  I,  pt.  1,  19,  and  XX,  47  :  15.  Moreover 
in  B.  E.,  XX  :  47,  both  names  appear.  Until,  therefore,  a  phonetic 
writing  is  found,  althougli  AMAR  may  be  read  Bur,  the  reading 
Amar-Sin  for  tlie  former  and  Bur-Sin  for  the  latter  is  preferable.  . 

"  Religion  of  Egypt  and  Babylonia,  p.  325. 


AMURRU    IN    CUNEIFORM    INSCRIPTIONS     119 

the  other  explanations,  it  does  not  seem  out  of  place  to 
offer  still  other  conjectures. 

If  Amar  is  a  synonym  of  *11K,  "light/'  as  has  been 
suggested,  which  Pinches  apparently  had  in  mind  in 
translating  ''brightness,''  then  the  first  element  of  the 
name  could  also  be  a  synonym  of  NE  (=  nuni),  which 
is  found  in  NE-URU-GAL,  "Light  of  the  great  tyru," 
and  also  of  SIR  (=  nUru  or  napdfiu)  in  >S//^- (usually 
read  BU)NE-NE,  "Light  or  flame  of  the  fire,"  the 
charioteer  of  Shamash  of  Sippar.  In  this  case  AMAR- 
UTUG  would  mean  "Light  of  Utuk,'' i.e.,  the  sun. 
A-ma-ru,  which,  as  we  saw  above,  is  equivalent  to 
Marduk,  would  then  represent  perhaps  only  the  first 
element.  This  would  mean,  if  correct,  that  in  writing 
this  name  the  Amorite  element  Amar  was  used  in  con- 
nection with  the  Sumerian  UTUG  or  the  Baby  Ion- 
ized utuk. 

Another  explanation  is  perhaps  more  plausible. 
Words  were  compounded  in  Babylonian  in  other  than 
the  Semitic  construct  relation.*  Many  of  these  com- 
positions doubtless  arose  through  the  influence  of 
Sumerian  writing.^ 


^  See  Delitzsch,  Assyrische  Grammatik. 

2  In  this  connection  I  desire  to  call  attention  to  several  names 
of  woods,  stones,  animals  and  plants,  some  of  which  may  eventually 
be  shown  to  be  similar  in  formation.  The  name  of  the  countr}- 
Amurru,  being  the  same  as  the  deity,  among  the  many  variations 
in  form  in  which  the  name  appears  we  have  Amar^  Mar,  Amur, 
Mur,  Ur  and  Ar. 

Plants:  A-mur-tin-nu  (II  R.,  45,  58);  A-mur-ri-qa-nu  (also  a 
sickness  of  the  eye,  cf.  Arabic  araq  and  uraq,  "grain  sickness"); 


120  AMURRU    HOME    OF   NORTHERN    SEMITES 

As  is  customary  at  the  present  time  to  designate  the 
origin  of  animals,  woods,  etc.,  by  mentioning  the  name  of 
the  country,  as,  for  example,  ''Scotch  terrier/'  "Italian 
marble,''  etc.,  it  seems  natural  to  postulate  that  the 
Babylonians  did  the  same  in  naming  foreign  materials. 
And  this  being  the  case,  Amurru  should  figure  promi- 
nently in  that  respect,  for  frequently  we  read  in  the 
inscriptions,  as  early  as  the  time  of  Gudea,  that  this 
land  was  the  forest  that  furnished  woods  for  their 
temples,  and  the  quarry  where  they  got  certain  kinds 
of  stone.  Amar-utuk  may,  therefore,  mean  "the 
Amorite  Utuk/'  i.e.,  "the  Amorite  sun-god."  One 
other  explanation  seems  probable  and  worth  considering. 

AMAR-UTUG,  being  an  Amorite  deity,  contains 
as  its  first  element  Amar,  meaning  the  deity  (see  above). 
In  the  light  of  these  considerations,  therefore,  is  it  not 
reasonable  to  suggest  that  the  name   means   "  Amar 


Awa-ar-ka-^r  (II  R.,  43  :  67a  and  6);  Awa-ar-si-qir  (ibid.);  Awa-ar- 
sa-na-bu  (Delitzsch,  H.  W.  B.,  p.  51),  etc.  Woods:  Ur-lya-lu-ub  {Vor. 
Bib.,  I,  pp.  30,  96)  seems  to  belong  to  Amurru ;  Ur-karinnu  (Esar- 
haddon,  I  :  20)  is  brought  with  cedar  from  Sidon ;  Mar-eriqqu  (Muss- 
Amolt,  Die,  4148),  etc.  Stones:  Mur-ar-na-tim  (Brunnow,  12803); 
Mur-siparru  (Brunnow,  13279);  Ar-gaman,  which  is  Phoenician  dye. 
td:i  in  S>Tiac  means  "color, "  etc.  .\nimals :  A-mur-sa-nu ;  A-mur-si- 
gu  (Meissner,  Supplement,  p.  5) ;  Awa-ar-i-lum  (  =  Mur-babillu,  Muss- 
Arnolt,  Die,  p.  90,  and  Delitzsch,  H.  W.  B.,  p.  51);  Mur-nisqi 
(Muss-Amolt,  Die,  p.  584,  root  nasCiqu) ,  etc. 

These  words,  the  etymology  of  nearly  all  of  which  is  in  doubt, 
taken  from  a  fuller  list,  I  simply  offer  in  order  to  raise  the  question 
whether  some  of  them  at  least  cannot  be  explained  as  containing 
perhaps  the  element  discussed,  and  especially  as  we  have  similar 
formations,  as  ashar-edu,  perhaps  arisen  from  the  Sumerian, 


AMURRU    IN    CUNEIFORM    INSCRIPTIONS     121 

is  Utuk/'  or  the  "  Amar-Utuk/'  like  Bel-Marduk,  El- 
Shaddai,  Bir-Hadad,  Yahweh-Sebaoth?  This  being 
true,  the  Sumerian  scribes,  perhaps,  in  this  way 
differentiated  in  writing  the  name  of  the  sun-god  of 
the  Semites  from  their  own  solar  deity,  UTU  or  UTUG. 
Moreover,  even  though  none  of  these  conjectures 
shall  eventually  prove  to  be  correct,  it  does  seem  that 
the  first  element  AMAR  represents  the  name  or  epithet 
of  the  chief  deity  of  the  Amorites. 

NIN-IB. 

NIN-IB,  who  so  frequently  interchanges  with  Nergal, 
is  also  a  Babylonian  solar  deity  that  was  imported  from 
the  West;  or,  to  express  it  differently,  the  name  repre- 
sents another  writing  of  the  Amoritic  sun-god/  The 
Aramaic  equivalent  which  the  writer  published  several 
years  ago,  namely,  HC^I^^^,  and  which  he  consistently 
maintained  was  correctly  read  against  the  views  of 
others,  has  recently  been  placed  beyond  doubt  by 
the  discovery  of  Professor  Montgomery  of  the  name 
written  on  an  ostracon  no  less  than  five  times  (see 
Appendix).  This  Aramaic  equivalent  has  received 
thus  far  about  fifteen  different  explanations.  The  writer, 
however,  feels  that  the  one  he  recently  offered,'  namely, 
ntri^^  =  EN-MASHTU  for  EN-MAR-TU,  which 
is  Sumerian  for  hel  Amurru,  "  Lord  of  Amurru  or  Uru, " 
like    LUGAL-Vru,   which    has    practically   the    same 


^See  Clay,  "The  Origin  and  Real  Name  of  NIN-IB,"  Journal 
of  American  Oriental  Society,  vol.  XXVIII,  1907;  also  the  Appendix 
on  "The  Name  of  NIN-IB.'' 


122  AMURRU   HOME   OF   NORTHERN   SEMITES 

meaning,  has  not  been  improved  upon.  There  is,  how- 
ever, another  plausible  explanation  of  this  name,  which 
may  eventually  be  found  to  be  correct. 

We  have  seen  in  Part  I  that  the  mountain  Mdshu 
figures  prominently  in  the  Gilgamesh  epic,  and  that  it 
is  located  in  the  land  of  Amurru.  We  have  further 
seen  how  in  the  name  Gilga-mesh  and  in  the  names  of 
several  temples  in  Babylonia  the  element  Mash  or 
Mesh  figures,  and  that  this  element  in  all  probability 
is  foreign.  Now,  as  is  well  known,  another  common 
ideogram  for  NIN-IB  is  MASH.  The  first  element 
NIN  meaning  ^'Lady  or  Mistress,"  and  the  name  NIN-IB^ 
"  Lady  IB, "  who  was  the  consort  of  the  god  IB,  shows 
that  originally  the  deity  was  feminine.  As  there  was  a 
West  Semitic  deity  called  Mash,  his  consort  should  be 
called  Mashtu.  In  Babylonian,  there  is  a  deity  Mash  and 
also  his  consort  Mashtu.  Knowing  as  we  do  that  this 
deity,  like  Nin-Girsu  and  others,  became  masculinized,  it  is 
altogether  reasonable  to  assume  that  even  in  early  times 
the  deity  became  EN -Mashtu,  that  is,  "  Lord  Mashtu. '' 
This  as  well  as  the  above  explanation  identifies  the 
deity  with  the  West,  which  is  further  discussed,  and  for 
which  additional  proofs  are  given  in  the  Appendix  on 
"The  Name  iV/AT-/^." 

URASH. 

The  god  Urash,  written  IB  and  perhaps  also  IB-BA,^ 
who  was  the  local  deity  of  Dilbat,   is  doubtless  also  a 


» See  Qay,  B.  E.,  vol.  XIV,  p.  59. 


AMURRU    IN    CUNEIFORM    INSCRIPTIONS     123 

solar  deity  from  Ainurru.  This  follows  from  the  deter- 
mination of  NIN-IB,  who  was  originally  the  consort  of 
IB,  as  being  Amorite. 

It  occurs  in  Ehed-Urash  in  the  Amarna  letters. 
Now  in  a  Punic  inscription  of  the  third  century  B.C. 
there  occurs  the  name  5J^^J<"lDi^,  which  in  all  proba- 
bility is  the  same;  compare  also  NtJ^HNDCO.*  Urash 
may  be  a  contraction  of  Ji^N"*lJ<,  Ur-esh,  i.e.,  Vru-Esh, 
like  Bir-Adad  or  Amar-Utuk,  etc.  (see  above).  The  first 
element  in  Esh-ba'al  (7i^2ti^ii)j  son  of  Saul,  and  Ashbel 
(^DSJ^N,  Ia(Ti37jX)j  the  name  of  a  son  of  Benjamin  (Gen. 
46  :  21),  may  of  course  be  tJ'^N,  "man,''  but  I  prefer  to 
see  in  it  the  deity  Esh,  "fire-god";  compare  I  shunt 
especially  in  the  Hammurabi  period.^  IB  =  Urash  has 
the  value  aqmu,^  perhaps  "  I  burned, "  and  considering 
that  IB  is  the  consort  of  NIN-IB,  a  solar  deity,  the 
above  explanation  seems  at  least  plausible.* 

SHAMASH. 

Shamash,  whose  temple  was  at  Sippar,  is  naturally 
recognized  as  the  great  solar  deity  of  the  Babylonian 
Semites.  At  the  same  time,  we  have  only  to  recall  the 
fact  that  in  the  Amarna  letters  Shamash  is  the  one  all- 


^  Cooke,  North  Semitic  Inscriptions,  p.  70,  compares  the  root  iy")K, 
which  in  Assyrian  (ereshu)  =  *' desire,  request,"  and  the  Hebrew 
niJ^IX;  but  ibid.,  p.  129,  in  discussing  K^'^K^3;^,  he  thinks  it  is  a  deity, 
and  compares  'Ap?7f . 

'  See  Ranke,  Personal  Names. 

3  See  Briinnow,  List  No.  10481. 

*  For  another  explanation  of  Urash  see  Dhorme,  0.  L.  Z.,  1909. 


124  AMURRU   HOME    OF   NORTHERN    SEMITES 

important  deity,  so  frequently  named  in  the  salutation. 
The  Pharaoh  addressed  is  called  ''my  Shamash,  my 
god  (i7f/  i.e.,  pluralis  intensivus),  my  lord/'  These 
three  terms  correspond  to  the  Hebrew  Yahweh,  Elohim, 
"god,"  and  Adonai,  "lord."  It  is  not  impossible 
that  the  Egyptian  sun-god  Re,  or  the  foreign  impor- 
tation Aten  was  meant,  who  the  Egyptians  believed 
was  mcarnated  in  the  Pharaoh;  but  if  that  were  true, 
we  would  expect  at  least  a  single  variant,  in  which 
one  or  the  other  was  referred  to  by  that  name.  It  is 
more  probable  that  the  Amorite  writer  meant  his  own 
sun-deity  which  he  associated  with  the  deity  of  the 

^  In  spite  of  the  pronounced  views  of  others  who  have  differed 
with  the  explanations  offered  for  DINGIR-DINGIR  or  DINGIR 
MESH  =  Elohim  (D'H/X),  the  generic  name  of  the  god  among 
the  Hebrews  and  the  people  of  the  West  (cf.  Hilprecht,  Editorial 
Preface  to  my  B.  E.,  vol.  X,  p.  IX),  I  continue  to  maintain  that 
this  explanation  offered  by  Barton  {Proc.  Amer.  Orien.  Soc,  April, 
1892)  is  in  all  probability  correct.  That  DINGIR-MESH  =  Sk, 
in  the  names  of  the  Achaemenian  period,  I  have  conclusively  shown 
in  my  paper  on  Aramaic  Endorsements  in  the  Harper  Memorial 
Volume  (I,  p.  287  ff.).  Unless  it  can  be  proved  that  the  word 
Elohim  of  the  Old  Testament  was  not  in  use  as  early  as  the  second 
millennium  B.C.,  there  is  every  reason  to  expect  to  find  it  in  the 
literature  of  Palestine,  and  especially  in  the  Amarna  letters.  This 
being  true,  there  are  good  reasons  for  believing  that  in  the  name 
Warad-DINGIR-DINGIR-MAR-TU  we  must  recognize  the  generic 
name  for  ''God"  used  by  the  Western  Semites;  that  is,  instead  of 
translating  "gods  of  Amurru, "  the  writer  believes  that  in  the  early 
period,  as  well  as  in  tlie  late,  the  scribes  differentiated  between 
ilu  and  bx  or  DTiSk.  Moreover,  a  modification  of  this  view  might 
be  suggested,  which  is  that  the  name  was  probably  read  Warad- 
El-tJru.  Considered  in  connection  with  llSx  in  the  Pognon  inscrip- 
tion, this  explanation  appears  reasonable. 


AMURRU    IN    CUNEIFORM    INSCRIPTIONS     125 

Egyptian,  which  he  knew  was  also  solar.  Without 
taking  mto  consideration  place  names,  such  as 
Beth-Shemesh,  etc.,  or  perhaps  names  as  Samson 
(Shimshdn)  in  Palestine,  it  must  be  acknowledged  that 
the  Amorites  and  Aramaeans  used  extensively  the  name 
Shamash  or  Shemesh  for  their  chief  deity.  Not  only 
the  Amarna  letters  show  this,  but  also  the  so-called 
Cappadocian  tablets  pubhshed  by  Sayce,  Delitzsch 
and  Pinches. 

The  Sumerian  chirographers,  in  writing  the  name 
Shamash  at  Sippar,  used  the  same  ideogram  UTU 
which  stood  for  their  own  solar  deity,  whose  seat  of 
worship  was  at  Larsa.  That  the  Semitic  name  Shamash 
prevailed  in  that  city  is  an  indication  that  the  deity 
in  his  original  habitat  was  known  under  that  name. 

No  satisfactory  etymology  of  the  name  Shamash  has 
yet  been  offered.    The  idea  that  it  is  derived  from  a  stem 
ti^D^,   which  in   Aramaic    means   "to   minister  unto, 
to  serve,''  because  in  the  Babylonian  pantheon  Shamash 
is  the  son  of  Nannar  or  Sin,  and  occupies  a  subservient 
position  to  the  moon-god,  does  not  appear  plausible. 
The  reason  why  the  god  Sin  is  accorded  a  superior  rank 
must  be  due  to  other  influences  and  to  the  fact  that 
Shamash  is  foreign.      The  all-powerful  element  of  the 
universe  certainly  would  not  represent  a  deity  subsid- 
iary to  the  moon  in  his  own  habitat.    The  only  reasonable 
explanation  for  the  position  which  Shamash  occupies  in 
the  pantheon,  especially  when  we  recall  that  most  of  the 
deities  of  the  Semitic  Babylonians  are  solar,  is  that  the 
(noon-god  cult  of  such  cities  as  Ur  and  Haran  was  able  to 


126   AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

establish  its  deity  in  the  foremost  position  during  the 
rule  of  some  powerful  dynasty.*  Besides  this  Aramaic 
stem,  which  has  led  scholars  to  give  the  meaning  "  servi- 
tor" to  Shamash,  no  other  seems  to  exist  from  which  the 
name  can  be  derived.  Taking  this  into  consideration,  the 
following  is  offered  as  a  plausible  conjecture. 

The  name  Mash,  more  than  has  been  realized, 
figures  prominently  in  the  Eastern  as  well  as  in  the 
Western  Semitic  cultures.  Mash  in  the  Old  Testament  is 
called  one  of  the  sons  of  Aram  (Gen.  10  :  23).  Mdshu 
is  the  mountain  where  the  gates  of  the  setting  sun  were 
found.  This,  as  has  been  stated  (p.  77),  is  probably  to 
be  located  in  Amurru  and  perhaps  is  Hermon,  near 
Damascus  (see  below). 

This  element  Mash  is  frequently  met  with  in  the 
Babylonian  mscriptions.  It  occurs  in  a  number  of 
temple  names,  for  example  E-UL-MASH,  E-M ASH- 
MASH,  E-MESH-LAM,  etc.  It  is  also  found  in  the 
name  Gilga-Mesh  (see  p.  78).  This  solar  hero  was 
associated  with  Erech,where  a  deity  Mesh  was  worshiped.^ 
The  name  of  the  solar  deity  Lugal-Urra  or  Nergal 
is  written  with  the  signs  MASH-MASH.  This  deity  is 
of  Western  origin.  The  name  NIN-IB,  another  of  the 
chief  solar  deities  of  Babylonia,  is  written  in  cuneiform 
'^MASH,  and   is   phonetically  written   Ma-a-shu   in   a 


*  Prof.  Jastrow,  Rel.  Bab.  und  Ass.,  II,  p.  457,  maintains  that 
astrological  considerations  are  responsible  for  the  relative  positions 
of  Sin  and  Shamash. 

'  Cf .  CoUection  de  Clerq,  IX  :  ,S2. 


AMURRU    IN    CUNEIFORM    INSCRIPTIONS     127 

syllabary.^  NIN-IB,  while  prominently  worshiped  in 
Babylonia,  is  also  a  deity  of  the  West.  In  Aramaic 
the  name  is  written  ^\^^yi<  =  EN-Mashtu,'^  i.e.,  "Lord 
Mdshtu.''  Mdshtu  is  known  in  cimeiform,  and  is  perhaps 
to  be  identified  with  Vashti  of  the  Book  of  Esther. 
The  gods  Mdshu  and  Mdshtu  are  called  the  children  of 
Sin.^  Shamash  was  also  regarded  as  the  offspring  of  Sin.^ 
The  sign  MASH,  it  may  be  mentioned  also,  has  such 
values  as  shamshu,  ellu,  ihhu,  amdru,  namdru,  etc. 

The  deity  whose  habitat  was  found  in  the  mountain 
Mash  might  well  be  called,  following  the  Semitic  usage 
with  a  relative  particle,  Sha-Mash,  or  El  Shammash, 
i.e.,  "He  of  Mash/'  or  "The  god  of  Mash."  This  has  its 
parallel  in  Babylonian  where  "  Man  of  sealing"  or  "  of  the 
seal,"  is  written  ^shakkanaku.^  The  relative  is  commonly 
found  as  an  element  in  Babylonian  personal  names, 
e.g.,  Sha-Addu,  etc.^  It  is  also  foimd  in  the  West  Semitic 
names  Methu-shd-El  and  Mi-shd-El.  Beth-sha-El  (writ- 
ten Bayt-sha-ra) ,''  one  of  the  frequently  mentioned  cities 
of  Palestine  in  the  Egyptian  inscriptions,  also  seems  to 

1  Cf.  Brunnow,  List  No.  1778. 

'  See  Appendix  on  the  name  NIN-IB 

'  See  Appendix  on  the  name  NIN-IB. 

*  See  Jastrow,  Rel.  of  Bab.  and  Ass.,  p.  68. 

^  Cf .  also  ^shangu  "man  of  sacrifice,"  and  ^shabru  "man  of 
seeing." 

"  See  Tallqvist,  Neuhabylonisches  Namenbuch,  p.  331,  and  Ranke, 
P.  N.,p.  245.  If  this  explanation  of  the  name  Shamash  should  prove 
correct,  it  is  not  impossible  that  El  Shaddai  is  a  similar  formation, 
perhaps  containing  the  element  Addu. 

'  See  W.  M.  MuUer,  Europa  und  Aden,  p.  192,  and  Mitteilungen 
der  vorderasiat.  Gesellschaft,  XII,  1907,  29. 


128   AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

contain  the  particle.  It  probably  represents  the  city 
Bethel.^  The  relative  is  also  found  in  Arabic  divine 
names,  e.g.,  DhU'l  Qalasa,  Dhul  Shard,  etc.,^  and  also 
in  Old  South  Arabic  names,  e.g.,  Dhu  Saindwi.^  The 
explanation  that  Shamash  contains  the  relative  would 
give  a  reason  for  the  doubling  of  m  in  Il-Tammesh,*  for, 
as  is  well  known,  one  of  the  forms  of  the  particle  doubles 
the  following  consonant.  As  stated  above,  this  is  offered 
simply  as  a  conjecture  in  the  absence  of  any  reasonable 
explanation  of  Shamash. 

A  word  may  properly  be  added  here  with  reference 
to  the  name  Damascus.  The  fact  that  it  is  a  very  ancient 
and  important  city  raises  the  question  whether  it  is  not 
mentioned  in  the  early  Babylonian  inscriptions. 

It  seems  that  Damascus  must  be  Qi-Mash-qi  which 
figures  so  prominently  in  the  inscriptions  of  Gudea  and 
Dungi.  This  city  is  usually  considered  to  be  in  Arabia,^ 
but  the  scene  of  Dungi's  operations  were  chiefly  in 
Amurru.  In  the  absence  of  any  proof  that  KI  or  QI  is 
Semitic,  this  would  mean  that  the  name  of  the  city  as 
known  in  cuneiform  was  or  became  the  name   of   the 


*  In  Papyrus  Anastasi  I,  -sha-cl  occurs,  which  prompted  scholars 
to  think  of  Bethel  instead  of  Bethshean. 

'  Wellhausen,  Reste  Arabischen  Heidentumes,  p.  42  ff. 
'  Baethgen,  Beitrdge,  p.  123  f, 

*  Tliere  are  a  few  variant  forms  as  Il-Tamesh,  Il-Temesh,  see 
Tallqvist,  Neubabylonisches  Namenbuch,  p.  288. 

*  Dclitzsch  (Paradies,  p.  242  f .)  has,  however,  made  it  quite 
reasonable  that  the  desert  of  Syria  is  referred  to  in  Ashurbanipal's 
campaign  as  the  desert  of  Mash.  Jensen  now  also  places  Mdshu  in 
the  Lebanon  district. 


AMURRU    IN    CUNEIFORM    INSCRIPTIONS     129 

city.  In  the  inscription  of  Gudea  KA-GAL-AD-KI  is 
the  mountain  of  QI-MASH,  which  is  also  called  the 
''mountain  of  copper ''  (BAR-SAG-URUDU-GE). 
Perhaps  the  name  means  "  gate  "  (KA-GAL)  "  of  cop- 
per ''  (AD?) ;  at  least  AD-JJAL  means  copper.  This 
idea  of  a  gate  reminds  us  of  the  gate  of  the  setting  sun 
in  the  Gilga-Mesh  epic  at  the  mountain  Mdshu;  and 
also  the  passage,  Zech.  6:1,  where  it  says  the  four 
chariots  passed  between  the  two  moimtains  of  brass. 
Damascus  is  east  of  Hermon  and  southeast  of  an 
offshoot  of  the  Antilebanon,  perhaps  such  a  location 
where  the  idea  of  a  gate  of  the  setting  sun,  referred  to  in 
the  Gilga-Mesh  epic,  would  arise.  It  may  be  that  the 
gate  was  formed  by  Mount  Hermon  and  Mount  Lebanon. 
But  more  important  than  all  else  is  the  fact  that  there 
were  copper  mines  east  of  the  Lebanon  range  in  this 
land  of  Nuji^ashsM^  of  the  Amarna  Letters.  The  city 
alongside  of  Mash  would  probably  be  called  ''City  of 
Mash."  This  identification  finds  support  in  the  passage, 
Gen.  15:2,  where  Eliezer  is  called  pt^D  p,  "Son  of 
Mesheq."^  The  question  then  arises,  how  shall  the  first 
part  of  the  name  be  understood? 

The  name  of  the  city  is  written  p^??'^,  p^?")l 
and  pb*?*!*^  in  the  Old  Testament;  Ti-jnas-qu,  Sa- 
ra-mas-qi  (for  Ti-ra-mas-qi)  in  Egyptian;  Ti-ma-ash-gi, 
Di-mash-qa  in  the  Amarna  letters;     Di-ma-ash-qi,  Di- 

^  Enc.  Bib.,  II,  col.  893. 

2  The  words  following  are  a  gloss  explaining  in  a  later  period 
that  Mesheq  is  Dammesheq.     The  passage  reads  "  a  son  of  Meaheq 
is  my  family — that  is  Damascus — Eliezer." 
9 


130  AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

mas-qa,  Dim-mas-qa,  etc.,  in  the  Assyrian  inscriptions; 
and  Dimashqu,  etc.,  in  Arabic.  In  view  of  the  above 
explanation  of  Sha-Mash,  and  the  doubling  of  the  m^ 
in  the  name,  it  is  possible  to  see  here  the  relative  particle 
(see  above).  This  view  finds  support  in  the  other  form 
of  the  name,  '^^Slia-imeri-shu?  If  this  should  prove 
correct,  then  the  early  name  Mesheq,  perhaps  arisen 
from  the  cuneiform  wiiting  of  the  name  Mask^,  later 
became  Dammesheq,  "  (city)  of  Mesheq." 

Another  and  more  reasonable  explanation  is  that  the 
first  element  written  Dar,  Dum  (for  Dur),  and  even  Sara 
m  Egyptian,  is  equivalent  to  the  Aramaic  Der  and  the 
Babylonian  dur,  ''fortress,"  etc.,  which  is  doubtless 
from  the  Aramaic  stem  11)1,  "to  enclose,  or  to  sur- 
round," and  continues  in  the  late  Aramaic  dialect  as 


^  The  r  in  several  of  the  forms  could  have  been  used  for  the  dia- 
aimulation  of  mm. 

'  The  other  form  of  the  name  in  cuneiform  is  Sha-imeri-shu 
{Sha-i-me-ri-shu,  III  R,  2,  XX),  Sha-NITA-shu  and  Sha~NITA- 
MESH-shu  (III  R.  9,  50).  These  writings  can  be  reconciled  if  the 
second  sign  is  read  amaru  (Briinno-w , List,  49S3),  i.e.,  Amar  the  "god," 
instead  of  imeru  the  "ass,"  and  NIT  A  as  f7ra,  perhaps  Mir  (Brunnow, 
List,  Xos.  954  and  955).  or  NITA-MESH  as  Miri.  SHU  (although 
in  the  late  period  another  sign  SHU  is  used)  hjis  the  value  eribu, 
especially  in  connection  with  sJiamshu  (cf.  Brunnow,  List,  10828), 
AMAR  or  MIR-SHU  would  then  be  equivalent  to  MAR-TU,  or  enb 
shamshi,  "the  setting  sun."  Sha-AMAR-SHU  would  mean  "The 
city  of  the  setting  sun,"  a  most  appropriate  name  for  Damascus. 
However,  the  fact  that  this  would  again  bring  the  Semitic  relative 
into  connection  with  a  Sumerian  ideogram  must  be  recognized  as  an 
objection,  unless  we  assume  that  the  cuneiform  script  was  exten- 
sively used  in  that  district  in  the  third  millennium  B.C.,  and  the 
ideogram  had  early  become  Semitized. 


AMURRU    IN    CUNEIFORM    INSCRIPTIONS     131 

dUrdj  "circuit,  enclosure."  The  name  would  then  mean 
circuit  or  enclosure  or  fortress  of  Mesheq  (or  Mash), 
instead  of  "  Aselstadt."  This  has  its  parallel  in  the  name 
Carchemish,  which  has  been  translated  "Castle  of  Mish;^' 
perhaps  better,  "Fortress  Mash/^  The  latter  element 
is  of  course  the  name  of  the  sim-god. 

ADDU  OR  AD  AD. 

As  is  well  known,  Addu  or  Ramman  in  Babylonia 
appears  as  a  god  of  rain  and  lightning,  and  in  Syria, 
where  he  is  indigenous,  as  shown  by  Jensen,^  Jastrow,' 
Zimmern,^  and  others,  he  is  recognized  as  a  solar 
deity.  This  seems  to  have  its  parallel  in  Marduk* 
and  in  Nin-Girsu,  the  Sumerian  sun-deity  of  Tello,  who 
is  also  the  god  of  agriculture.  Naturally,  the  fructifi- 
cation and  vivification  of  the  earth  is  dependent  upon 
the  warmth  of  the  sun  together  with  the  rain. 

Addu  is  associated  and  identified  with  the  god  of  the 
West,  i.e.,  Amurru.  This  seems  to  be  well  established;-^ 
cf.  MAR-TU^'^IM  sha  ahuhe,  i.e.,  ''Addu of  the  floods.'' 
Compare  the  name  in  the  Amarna  letters  Amur-Adad 
C^IM),  i.e.,  "Amur  is  Adad."  Addu,  as  is  well  known, 
is  also  the  god  of  the  mountains.  MAR-TU  =  Amurru 
=  hel  shadi,  i.e.,  "lord  of  the  mountain.''  KUR-GAL 
(=  Amurru)  =  shadH  rabU,  i.e.,  "the  great  mountain." 

'Z.  ^1.,  VI,  303  ff. 

'  Rel.  Bab.  und  Ass.,  p.  222. 

^K.A.  T.\p.  433. 

*Cf.  Jensen,  K.  B.,  VI,  p.  563. 

» Cf.  Ill  R.,  67,  Rev.  c-d,  51. 


132  AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

In  this  connection  we  are  reminded  of  the  epithets 
Shaddai,  Elyon  and  Sur  (HCT,  JV"?:;  and  mi^)  of 
the  Old  Testament,  as  well  as  the  conception  the 
Syrians  had  of  the  nature  of  Israel's  God  when  they 
said,  "Yahweh  is  a  god  of  the  hills,  ^'  1  Kings  21  :  28.^ 
As  has  been  shown,  there  are  other  designations  of 
this  deity,  namely,  Mur,  Mer,  Bur,  Bir,  etc.^  These 
seem  to  be  variations  of  the  name  Mar.^  And  that 
being  true,  Bir-Hadad  would  mean  "Mar  is  Hadad, " 
which  later  may  have  been  misunderstood  by  the 
Hebrews  who,  perhaps  influenced  by  the  Assyrian  Mar 
(see  p.  162),  considered  it  to  be  the  Aramaic  har,  "son." 
Moreover,  I  simply  desire  to  emphasize  in  this  connection 
that  this  deity  is  indigenous  in  the  West,  and  was  intro- 
duced from  that  land  into  Babylonia. 

NUSKU. 

Nusku  is  also  recognized  as  an  original  solar  deity. 
The  names  of  the  ffarran  Census*  show  that  this  deity 
was  prominently  worshiped  in  Haran  under  the 
name  of  Naskhii,  where  there  was  a  temple  devoted  to 
him.  Some  hold  that  the  deity  was  imported  from 
Nippur,  but  exactly  the  reverse  is  more  likely  to  be  the 

*See  Ward,  "The  Origin  of  the  Worship  of  Yahwe,"  Amer. 
Jour.  Sem.  Lang.,  April,  1909,  p.  175  ff.      Also  see  Part  I,  p.  88. 

'See  Jastrow,  Rel.  Bab.  und  Ass.,  p.  146;  also  Hommel,  Auf- 
sdtze,  p.  220,  and  Zimmern,  K.  A.  T.\  p.  445  ff. 

^  Hilprecht,  Assyriaca,  p.  77,  note  1,  says  Me-ir  (=  Mir)  is 
identical  with  Bir  or  Mur. 

*  See  Johns,  Assyrian  Doomsday  Book,  p.  12. 


AMURRU    IN   CUNEIFORM    INSCRIPTIONS     133 

case,  namely,  that  Nusku  was  originally  a  Western 
deity,  and  that  Naskhu  represents  the  more  ancient 
writing  of  the  name. 

ISHUM. 

Ishum,  the  messenger  of  Nergal,  is  also  a  fire-  or 
pest-god.  This  deity  appears  as  the  faithful  attendant 
of  Urra,  who  is  the  same  as  Nergal,  and  is  in  all  proba- 
bility the  same  as  the  West  Semitic  Esh  (C'X)  discussed 
above. 

SARPANITUM. 

§arpdnitum,  the  consort  of  Marduk,  is  also  a  solar 
deity,  and  means  "brightness''  or  "shining.''^  There 
can  be  no  question  but  that  the  name  is  Semitic,  and  is 
a  formation  in  an  from  ^"IV.  The  figures  of  this 
deity  on  the  seal  cylinders.  Doctor  Ward  thinks,  are 
borrowed  from  the  Syro-Hittite  representations  of  the 
chief  goddess  of  the  West  (see  below). 

BU-NE-NE. 

Another  variation  of  this  solar  deity  is  the  charioteer 
or  companion  of  Shamash,  worshiped  especially  at 
Sippar,  whose  name  is  BU (or  SIR)-NE-NE.  SIR  = 
niXru,  and  NE-NE  can  equal  ishdti  (plural),  and  the 
name  can  mean  "  Light  of  the  great  fire. ''  In  the  late 
period  MUR  is  used  interchangeably  with  SIR-NE-NE? 


la.  Zimmem,  K.  A.  T.\  p.  375. 
2  a.  Tallqvist,  Z.  A.,  VII,  p.  279. 


134  AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

This  sign  is  usually  read  ffAR,  but  MUR  might 
be  preferable.  An  interesting  variant  of  the  name 
^MUR-ibni,  Dar.  395  :  20,  is  to  be  found  in  Dar.  396  :  18, 
where  the  same  name  is  written  ^UTU-ihni.  It  is 
not  improbable  that  UTU  is  to  be  read  BiVj  which  is  a 
variant  of  Mer^  Mur,  etc.*  This  explanation,  if  correct, 
would  throw  interesting  light  on  the  name  of  the  hero 
of  the  Babylonian  deluge  story,  UTU-napishtim, 
which  name  may  also  be  read  Bir-napishtim  (see 
Part  I).  The  associations  of  the  god  MUR,  considered 
in  connection  with  the  possible  variant  readings,  show 
that  it  is  a  solar  deity. 

MALIK. 

And  who  will  question  that  Malik  is  West  Semitic 
or  Arabic  instead  of  Babylonian,  perhaps  originally 
only  an  epithet,^  but  later  considered  to  be  a  name  ? 
This  well  known  deity  is  prominently  associated 
with  Shamash  and  SIR-NE-NE  at  Sippar.  This  fact 
is  interesting  when  considered  in  connection  with  the 
familiar  name  Uru-milki  and  Milki-Uru,  found  early 
and  late  in  Babylonia,  as  well  as  among  the  Western 
Semites.  In  the  Manishtusu  Obelisk  the  name 
Malik-ZI-IN-SU  occurs.  The  name  of  Sargon's  scribe 
is  Shunt-Malik.^      These    occurrences    show   that   the 


*  See  above  and  K.  A.  T.\  p.  443  ff. 

2  See    Moore's   article,   "Molech,"    Enc.    Bib.,    also    Barton    in 
Jeunsh  EncyclopcBdia;  and  Zimmern,  K.  A.  T},  p.  469. 
»  7or.  Bib.,  I,  164^. 


AMURRU    IN    CUNEIFORM    INSCRIPTIONS     135 

name  was  introduced  into  Babylonia  in  the  early  Semitic 
period. 

A  study  of  the  early  history  of  these  recognized 
Semitic  Babylonian  solar  deities  leads  us  to  certain 
important  conclusions.  In  the  first  place,  we  are  im- 
pressed with  the  fact  that  nearly  all  the  important 
Semitic  Babylonian  gods  are  sun-deities,  and  that  they 
are  not  indigenous  to  the  land.  The  earliest  traces  of 
the  more  important  are  synchronous  with  the  earliest 
references  to  the  Semites  in  Babylonia.  And  after 
we  realize  that  there  must  be  assumed  a  great  antiquity 
for  the  Amorites  and  their  culture,  and  finding  that 
they,  including  the  Aramaeans,  had  the  same  deities 
as  the  Semitic  Babylonians,  we  can  postulate,  after  a 
consideration  of  all  that  is  known,  that  the  Semitic 
Babylonians  were  originally  Western  Semites;  and  espe- 
cially as  the  elements  in  question,  generally  speaking, 
do  not  belong,  as  far  as  we  know,  to  other  early 
peoples. 

Dr.  William  H.  Ward,  the  eminent  authority  on 
Babylonian  seals,  informs  me  that  the  sun-god  is  one  of 
the  most  favorite  themes  of  the  Babylonian  and  Syrian 
seal  cylinders.  For  years  he  has  made  a  study  of  Baby- 
lonian and  S3a'o-Hittite  seals.  His  comparison  of  the 
forms  of  Babylonian  gods  with  the  forms  of  the  Syro- 
Hittite  deities  as  depicted  in  their  art  has  led  him 
to  the  conviction  that  the  forms  originated  in  the 
West.  That  is,  from  the  art  of  that  region  were 
derived  the  representations  of  Marduk  and  Amurru 
(MAR'TU)  at  different  times    from   the    more  digni- 


136  AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

fied  god  who  appears  in  the  Syro-Hittite  art  usually 
without  weapons.  Marduk  is  represented  simply  hold- 
ing his  scimitar  downward,  while  Amurru  the  same 
god  is  represented  with  one  hand  to  his  breast,  holding 
a  short  rod. 

Sarpdnitu,  the  naked  goddess  on  seals,  who  is  the 
consort  of  Marduk,  corresponds  to  the  naked  goddess 
on  the  Syro-Hittite  seals,  very  likely  the  wife  of  Tarkhu, 
the  chief  god  of  the  Hittites.  The  fourth  Babylonian 
god  in  the  art  of  the  Semitic  Babylonians  coming  from 
the  West  is  Adad,  who  holds  a  thunderbolt  and  weapon 
over  his  head,  and  leads  a  bull  (for  the  thunder).  In 
the  Hittite  art  this  god,  usually  called  Teshub,  bears 
other  weapons  such  as  the  club,  axe,  etc.  The  earlier  art 
of  the  Tigro-Euphrates  valley  back  of  the  time  of  Gudea, 
in  the  opinion  of  Dr.  Ward,  does  not  show  traces  of  this 
influence  (see  also  page  87). 

We  have  only  to  recall  how  very  frequently  the  name 
of  Amurru  (fMAR-TU)  occurs  on  the  seal  cylinders 
of  the  Semitic  Babylonians  as  the  patron  god  of  the 
individual,  and  especially  in  contrast  with  the  official 
use  of  the  names  of  the  gods  in  the  inscriptions.  This 
is  reasonably  explained  according  to  the  theory  proposed 
in  these  discussions,  namely,  that  the  great  deity  known 
to  the  Amorites  as  AmurrUj  perhaps  also  Vru,  when 
brought  into  Babylonia  received  in  different  localities 
different  names.  That  is,  in  these  various  centers,  which 
were  really  independent  principalities  with  their  own 
guilds  or  schools  of  scribes,  the  Semites  having  probably 
aheady  an  alphabetic  script,  and  speaking  a  foreign 


AMURRU    IN    CUNEIFORM    INSCRIPTIONS     137 

tongue,  were  totally  dependent  at  first,  and  perhaps 
for  centuries,  upon  the  Sumerian  scribes  of  the  land  for 
everything  that  was  written  in  cuneiform  upon  clay 
or  stone.  This  involved  on  the  part  of  the  Sumerian 
scribes  a  determination  of  the  form  in  which  their  per- 
sonal names  and  deities  should  appear;  and  as  a  result 
these  forms  in  time  became  conventionalized,  just 
as  hundreds  of  other  words  in  their  vocabulary  which 
are  Sumerian. 

In  writing  the  name  of  the  solar  god  of  the  Semites, 
the  Sumerian  scribes  at  Sippar  used  the  character 
which  represented  their  own  sun  deity.  The  old  original 
Semitic  name  Shamash  prevailed,  perhaps  by  reason 
of  the  fact  that  Sippar  was  in  the  early  period  a 
powerful  Semitic  center.  This,  of  course,  is  very 
evident  in  comparison  with  Nippur,  where  the  contracts 
in  the  First  dynasty  are  still  written  in  Sumerian,  as  is 
shown  by  the  texts  recently  published  by  Poebel  (B.E.y 
Vol.  VI,  part  2).  At  Babylon,  the  scribes  did  the  same 
thing  and  used  in  writing  the  name  of  this  imported 
sun-god  their  own  UTU  or  UTUG,  prefixing  AMAR 
to  distinguish  this  Western  god  from  their  own  god. 
At  Cutha,  there  seem  to  have  been  several  different 
forms  of  the  name  of  the  deity,  namely,  Urru,  "The 
light '^•  NE-URU-GAL,  "Light  of  the  great  tfru''; 
LUGAL-URU,  "King  or  Lord  Vru'';  U~ri-gal,  etc. 
Elsewhere  the  deity  was  written  IB  or  Urash,  i.e.,  "The 
Ainar-Esh'\1),  and  NIN-IB,  his  consort,  which  later 
was  masculinized  and  considered  to  be  EN-Martu,  ^'  the 
Baal  Amurru/'  or  EN-Mashtu,  "The  lord  Mashtu." 


138  AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

Naturally  the  attributes  of  this  sun-god,  although 
originally  the  same  deity,  would  develop  differently, 
due  to  different  conditions  or  influences.  In  the  later 
centuries,  the  petty  principalities  were  brought  together 
into  political  unions,  and  there  was  a  grouping  of  the 
deities  into  a  pantheon,  when  their  original  solar  sig- 
nificance was  more  or  less  lost  sight  of,  with  the  excep- 
tions of  Shamash  at  Sippar.  If  this  conclusion  is  not 
accepted,  then  it  must  be  assumed  either  that  the  enter- 
ing Semites  adopted  the  Sumerian  UTU  sun-cult  of 
Larsa  in  Southern  Babylonia,  and  modified  it  in  accord- 
ance with  their  own  ideas  by  giving  it  different  names, 
or  it  must  be  assumed  that  they  came  from  different 
quarters,  in  each  one  of  which  a  solar  god  was  wor- 
shiped under  a  different  name.  That  is,  if  the  theory 
advanced  is  not  correct,  the  Semites  living  in  Sippar 
came  from  one  district,  while  the  devotees  of  Marduk 
and  those  that  worshiped  other  sun-deities  came  from 
other  localities.  Such  conclusions  naturally  would  in- 
volve us  in  great  difficulties,  and  would  indicate  a  strange 
development  of  sun  worship  as  well  as  a  state  of 
affairs  rather  difficult  to  comprehend.  In  the  light 
of  all  the  facts  known,  it  seems  that  the  only  conclu- 
sion at  which  we  can  arrive  is  that  the  Babylonians, 
generally  speaking,  were  originally  AVestern  Semites, 
and  that  they  brought  with  them  their  solar  worship 
from  the  West. 

OTHER  GODS:— ASHUR. 

The  chief  deity  of  the  Assyrian  pantheon  also 
seems  to  be  an  importation  from  the  West.    The  appear- 


AMURRU    IN    CUNEIFORM    INSCRIPTIONS      139 

ance  of  the  name  Ashur  in  Assyria  is  found  in  the  earliest 
inscriptions  from  that  land.  The  fact  that  the  name  does 
not  occur  in  the  early  Babylonian  inscriptions  precludes 
saying  the  deity  is  Babylonian.  Further,  the  fact  that 
the  name  is  written  A-usar,  A-shir,  Ashur,  Ash-shur, 
etc.,  points  to  a  foreign  origin. 

The  deity  figures  prominently  in  the  Cappadocian 
tablets,  some  of  which  belong  to  the  latter  part  of  the 
tliird  millennium  B.C.  It  also  occurs  in  the  Amarna 
letters.  It  is  found  in  the  Old  Testament  til^  ^^^, 
The  name  is  in  the  Phoenician  rh\^^^^  *)DK")D;^,  etc., 
and  in  the  Aramaic  '^'?01DN/  D^*)t^^^^,  etc.,  and 
perhaps  even  in  the  name  of  the  tribe  and  city  Asher 
and  Asshurim,  Gen.  25  : 3,  etc.^ 

These  occurrences  of  the  name  in  the  inscriptions 
of  the  West  point  to  West  Semitic  origin,  and  the 
association  of  such  elements  as  Malik  even  suggests  that 
it  may  be  solar.  When  we  take  into  consideration  also 
the  fact  that  other  prominent  Assyrian  deities,  such  as 
Shamash,  Amur,  Adad,  Urra,  Dagan,  etc.,  are  Western; 
and  that  the  study  of  the  so-called  Syro-Hittite  art 
shows  that  the  West  has  furnished  the  form  of  several 
deities  for  Assyria,  it  would  seem  that  the  Ass3a-ian 
culture  arose  through  migrations  from  the  West  instead 
of  from  Babylonia.^ 

^  Cf .  A-shir-ma-lik  and  A-shur-ma-lik  in  the  Cappadocian  inscrip- 
tions. 

^Hommel,  Die  vier  Paradiesesflusse,  p.  278,  holds  the  deity 
is  from  the  West. 

'  Winckler,  History  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria  (Craig's  translation, 
p.  181),  holds  that  the  representations  of  the  Assyrian  physiognomy 
is  Jewish. 


140   AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

While  it  is  not  improbable  that  the  temple  of  Ashur 
in  the  city  Ashur  was  founded  by  a  Hittite  ruler,  as  has 
been  maintained;  and  that  there  was  a  brief  Hittite 
rule  over  Babylonia,'  the  elements  which  made  up  the 
culture  of  Ass}Tia  are  not  Hittite  but  Semitic.  If  the 
center  from  which  the  Semites  came  is  Amurru,  the 
influence  of  Hittite  art  upon  the  Semitic  would  be  easy 
to  understand,  because  the  dominant  power  in  Amurru 
at  2000  B.C.  was  Hittite. 

Assyria  may  have  been  originally  a  colony  from  Baby- 
lonia, but  for  the  present  this  view  must  be  regarded  as 
entirely  hypothetical.  The  early  rulers  seem  to  have 
been  foreigners,  for  example,  Irishuw?  the  son  of  Qallu,^ 
Igur-kapkapu,  Pvdi-El*  Ushpia,^  Kikia,^  etc.  Latef 
rulers^  names  are  mostly  compounded  with  the  West 
Semitic  Ashur,  Adad,  and  Shamshi. 

Considering  the  date  of  the  Cappadocian  tablets  and 
the  fact  that  nearly  all,  although  coming  from  different 
localities,  contain  this  element,  it  must  be  admitted  that 
the  idea  that  those  bearing  these  names  represent 
Assyrian  colonists,  when  Assyria  is  scarcely  known  in 
the  inscriptions  of  the  East,  is  exceedingly  precarious. 
If  Ashera  is  the  consort  of  this  deity,  the  fact  that  the 

^See  Ungnad,  B.  A.,  VI,  5,  p.  13,  and  Jastrow,  "Hittites  in 
Babylonia,"  Revue  Semitique. 

^  Cf .  I-ri-si-im,  in  the  Cappadocian  tablets. 

'  Cf.  Qalili,  IJalia,  etc.,  in  B.E.,  XV;  perhaps  to  be  associated 
with  IJaligalbat. 

*  CS.  the  biblical  Pedahel  and  Pedaiah. 
» Cf.  the  Ca.ssite  Ush-bi-Sah,  B.E.,  XV. 

•  Cf.  Kikia,  B.E.,  XIV,  and  rnirnnd,  B.A.,  VI,  5,  p.  13. 


AMURRU    IN    CUNEIFORM    INSCRIPTIONS      141 

name  was  common  in  the  West,  and  not  in  the  East,  is 
strikingly  significant.  In  this  she  has  her  parallel  in 
Antum,  also  apparently  a  Western  goddess. 

ISHTAR. 

Not  only  do  we  have  the  West  Semitic  Asher  in 
Babylonia,  but  Ashera  the  chief  goddess.  A  great 
diversity  of  opinion  seems  to  exist  with  reference  to  the 
origin  of  the  name  and  cult  of  Ishtar.  Haupt  holds 
that  the  deity  came  from  the  name  Ashur}  Hommel 
sees  in  the  Ashera  of  the  West  the  origin  of  the  name.^ 
Tiele^  and  Muss-Arnolt*  see  in  the  name  the  root  ashdru^ 
"to  be  gracious,  bless."  Barton^  holds  the  original 
habitat  of  the  deity  is  Arabia,  where  she  was  called 
'Athtara,  and  that  she  entered  Babylonia  from  the 
South;®  while  Sayce^  thinks  the  deity  belongs  to  the 
non-Semitic  Babylonians,  i.e.,  the  Sumerians.  All  that 
the  writer  desires  to  say  is  that  the  name  of  the  deity  is 
unquestionably  foreign,  and  that  she  is  the  same  as 

1  Cf.  Jour.  Amer.  OHen.  Soc,  XXVIII,  p.  116.  But  the  change 
of  X  to  ;?  has  not  been  satisfactorily  explained. 

'  Aufsatze  und  Ahhandlungen,  II,  p.  20^ 

'  Bah.  und  Ass.  Geschichte,  p.  533. 

*  ^ss.  Dictionary,  p.  118. 

^  Semitic  Origins,  p.  103  f . 

"  Barton  thinks  that  originally  the  goddess  was  brought  into 
the  land  from  Arabia.  His  chief  argument  is  that  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  Moabite  Stone,  where  it  is  masculine,  and  *m;?  among 
the  Aramaeans  (see  Cooke,  Glossary  of  Aram.  Inscr.,  p.  95  f.),  it 
has  the  feminine  ending  in  the  West,  whereas  Ishtar  of  the  Baby- 
lonians and  'Athtara  of  the  Arabs  do  not. 

'  Archceology  of  the  Cuneiform  Inscriptions,  p.  338. 


142  AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

Ashratu/  the  belit  seri,  as  represented  by  the  Assyrians, 
the  Astarte  of  the  West,  and  consort  of  Amurru;"  and 
that  it  seems  highly  probable  that  the  biblical  Ashera 
is  the  same,  which  appears  to  be  the  feminine  of  Ashur. 
At  Erech,  the  same  prostitution  that  attended  the 
worship  of  Ashtoreth  in  Canaan  existed  in  the  cult  of 
Ishtar.  At  Bismaya,  also  dedicated  to  Ishtar,  Dr. 
Banks  informs  me  he  found  jars  containing  the  bodies  of 
small  infants,  as  were  found  in  the  high  places  of  Canaan, 
and  indications  of  the  same  lewd  practices  of  the  Erech 
cult.'  The  question  arises,  were  these  rites  introduced 
into  Canaan  from  Babylonia,  or  vice  versa?  Another 
alternative,  of  course,  is  that  there  was  a  common  source; 
but  of  this  we  have  no  knowledge.  As  has  been  said, 
Erech  was  essentially  a  Semitic  city.  The  very  fact  that 
this  phase  of  the  cult  did  not  exist  generally  in  Babylonia 
and  Assyria,  where  Ishtar  was  worshiped,  although 
Herodotus  speaks  of  it  at  Babylon,  would  speak  against 
its  origin  being  fixed  in  Babylonia;  and  especially  as  it 
was  so  thoroughly  rooted  in  the  West. 

ANU  AND  ANTUxM. 

ANNA,  the  patron  deity  of  Erech,  is  generally  recog- 
nized as  a  deity  of  the  Sumerians.    Although  the  cults 

*  a.  niniy;;,  Gen.  14  :  5,  also  K.  B.,  V,  142  :  10  and  237  :  21. 
The  use  of  ^  is  to  be  noted,  for  if  it  is  the  same  name  the  change  y 
to  K  or  %  to  i?  lias  taken  place. 

2  Sec  Jensen,  Zeit.  jiir  Ass.,  XI,  p.  302. 

'  The  usual  explanation  is  that  tlie  bodies  represent  the  offering 
of  the  first-born.  Another  suggestion  may  be  that  perhaps  they  are 
the  offspring  resulting  from  these  debased  rites. 


AMURRU    IN    CUNEIFORM    INSCRIPTIONS      143 

of  Ann  and  Ishtar  of  Erech  are  clothed  in  a  Semitic  garb^ 
and  the  town  is  "essentially  a  Semitic  city/'  I  do  not 
wish  even  to  suggest  that  ANNA  might  be  Semitic. 

There  are  some  reasons,  however,  for  venturing  the 
suggestion  that  a  Semitic  deity  Anu  was  introduced  into 
Babylonia  from  the  West,  some  of  whose  characteristics 
were  associated  with  the  cult  of  the  so-called  Sumerian 
ANNA. 

Anu  figures  prominently  in  the  early  Assyrian  inscrip- 
tions with  other  West  Semitic  deities,  as  Ashur,  Shamash, 
Adad,  Ishtar,  etc.  Perhaps  the  only  name  of  the  early 
period  compounded  with  Anu  (see  Langdon,  Index  to 
V,  B.,  I)  is  Anu-hanini,  king  of  Lulubi.  In  this  ruler's 
inscription,  Anu  is  the  first  deity  mentioned.  Thureau- 
Dangin  (7.  B.,  I,  p.  173)  regards  this  inscription  probably 
earlier  than  the  Ur  dynasty.  Anu  figures  also  in  the 
names  Gimil-Anim,  Pi-sha-Ana  and  Idsha-Ana  of  the 
Cappadocian  tablets.  It  is  perhaps  also  in  the  deity's 
naxne  Anammelek  (2  Kings  17  :  31). 

Especially  significant  is  the  fact  that  the  consort 
Antum  is  not  recognized  in  Babylonia.  It  occurs  in  the 
Assyrian  inscription  of  Agumkakrime,  and  in  the  late 
name  A-na-at-da-la-ti  (Johns,  A.  D.  D.,  p.  317).  It 
occurs  in  the  early  inscription  of  Anu-hanini,  king  of 
Lulubi,  found  at  Seripul.  It  occurs  in  the  old  Canaanite 
names  of  towns  'Anathoth  and  Beth-'Anath;  and  perhaps 
is  in  the  name  'Anath,  father  of  Shamgar.  Prof. 
Montgomery  calls  my  attention  also  to  the  name  of  the 
Amori  tehero  'Aner  (Genesis  14  :  13),  for  which  the 
Samaritain  Hebrew  gives  the  variant  An-ram,  perhaps 


144   AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

intended  for  Anu-ram.  It  is  usually  understood  to 
have  been  carried  to  Egypt  as  early  as  the  18th  dynasty 
{Asien,  p.  313).  In  short,  the  absence  of  the  consort 
in  Babylonian  literature  and  its  occurrence  in  the  West 
must  be  indicative  of  its  origin. 

NABU. 

Nabu,  another  important  Babylonian  deity,  who 
does  not  make  his  appearance  very  early,  at  least  in 
this  Semitic  form,  also  seems  to  be  of  West  Semitic 
origin.  The  deity  is  prominently  mentioned  in  the 
West  Semitic  inscriptions  as  an  element  in  names.* 
The  mountain  which  was  the  place  of  Moses'  death  was 
dedicated  to  this  god.  Like  Addu,  Amurru,  Dagan  and 
other  West  Semitic  names,  Nabu  is  frequently  found  in 
the  cuneiform  inscriptions  of  the  Neo-Babylonian  period 
in  distinctively  West  Semitic  names,  as  NahH-idri', 
NabH-rapa'j  etc.,  etc.^  And  also  when  the  fact  is  con- 
sidered that  Marduk,  Nergal,  Nana,  Gula,  and  other 
deities  bearing  names  distinctively  Babylonian  are  not 
found  in  the  West  Semitic  nomenclature,  we  are  led  to 
feel  that  Nabu  must  be  an  importation  from  the  West. 
Because  of  the  deity's  relation  with  fertility,  Jensen^ 
regarded  Nabu  as  originally  a  solar  deity.  His  associa- 
tion or  identification  with  Nusku  would  support  this 
view.  However,  the  evidence  on  this  is  too  scant  to 
arrive  at  any  conclusion. 

'  See  Lidzbarski,  Nord.  Sem.  Epig.,  p.  20  ff. 

'  See  Tallqvist.  Namenhuch,  and  B.  E.,  Vols.  IX  and  X. 

'  Kosmologie,  p.  239. 


AMURRU    IN    CUNEIFORM    INSCRIPTIONS      145 
SIN. 

The  moon-god  Sin  seems  to  be  West  Semitic .  Nannar, 
at  Ur  (Urumma),  being  also  a  moon-god,  later  became 
identified  with  Sin  by  the  Semites,  but  the  chief  habitat 
of  the  latter,  as  far  as  is  known,  seems  to  be  Haran.  The 
large  number  of  personal  names  compounded  with  Sin, 
or  rather  Si-,  found  in  the  IJarran  Census^  shows  how 
popular  the  cult  was  in  that  city.  Although  the 
Assyrian  scribes  did  not  use  the  determinative  in  con- 
nection with  this  deity  in  the  Harran  Census,  and  instead 
of  one  of  the  usual  ideograms  for  Sin  wrote  the  name 
Si-  (occasionally  Si  and  Se,  yet  compare  the  variant  Si 
ior'^Sin  in  Ungnad,  V.  S.,  Ill:  18),  we  conclude  that  the 
breathing  represented  a  pronunciation  peculiar  to  the 
district. 

The  name  was  written  Sin  outside  of  Haran  in  Baby- 
lonia, Palestine,  and  Arabia;  cf.  also  the  "Wilderness 
of  Sin''  and  "Mt.  Sinai."  Notwithstanding  this  fact 
the  deity  may  be  Aramsean.  In  an  Aramaic  inscrip- 
tion published  by  Pognon^  the  name  of  the  god  is  written 
Si  CO)  as  well  as  Su  (ID).  It  is  in  the  name  ID^HD, 
which  Pognon  reads  Bar-iksu.^  Without  any  doubt 
Si  (^D)  is  here  the  moon-god  Sin,  written  practically 
the  same  as  in  the  tablets  belonging  to  the  place  of  his 
principal  habitat.  Perhaps  also  we  may  see  the  same  cle- 
ment in  the  name  Sisera  and  Sihon  (N^D^D  and  pH^D). 

*  Sae  Johns,  Ass.  Doomsday  Book,  p.  13. 
^Inscriptions  Si'mitiques,  p.  114. 

'  Grimme,  O.  L.  Z.,  1909,  p.  17,  considers  the  deity  to  be  "Si  =• 
Siebengottheit." 
10 


146   AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

If  the  conjecture  that  the  original  form  of  the  deity  is 
Si\  Se,  or  Su,^  should  prove  to  be  correct,  is  it  not  possible 
to  see  m  EN-ZU,  the  ideogram  for  Sin,  the  Sumerian 
element  EN,  Lord,  and  the  Semitic  Su  or  Si,  a  formation 
like  EN-Mashtu;  and  on  the  principle  that  Nin-su-gir 
appears  Nin-gir-su,  EN-Su  might  be  written  Su-EN  or 
Si-EN  =  Sin.  Compare  the  name  En-na-Zu-in  found 
in  a  Cappadocian  tablet.^  If  the  deity  is  of  West  Semitic 
origin  this  will  account  for  the  Babylonian  form.  This, 
let  me  add,  is  only  offered  as  a  plausible  conjecture,  for 
the  n  of  Sin  in  Babylonian  and  the  other  West  Semitic 
dialects  may  represent  what  the  scribes  in  the  Haran 
district  intended  by  the  breathing  in  Si\ 

DAGAN. 

It  is  quite  evident  that  Dagan  is  also  a  West  Semitic 
deity^  who  was  early  introduced  into  Babylonia.  The 
name  of  the  deity,  with  the  determinative  for  god,  is 
found  on  the  Obelisk  of  Manishtusu.  In  the  37th  year 
of  Dungi  a  temple  is  dedicated  to  Dagan.  In  the 
dynasty  of  Isin,  probably  West  Semitic,  Ishme-Dagan, 
one  of  the  rulers,  doubtless  bears  a  West  Semitic  name. 
Dagan,  as  is  well  known,  wa.s  the  god  of  Gaza  and  Ash- 
dod.  The  place  name  Beth-Dagan,  and  the  name  of 
the  Canaanite,  Dagan-takala,  who  is  one  of  the  writers 

*  The  form  of  the  deity  Zd,  which  is  also  WTitten  Zt  and  Zd  in  the 
Legion  ZH,  is  at  least  to  be  noted  here. 

'  Identified  as  Sin  by  Homnicl. 

'Cf.  Clay,  Jour.  Amer.  Orien.  Soc,  XXVIII,  and  Meyer, 
Geschichte  des  AUertums,  p.  468. 


AMURRU    IN    CUNEIFORM    INSCRIPTIONS      147 

of  the  Amarna  letters,  point  to  Palestine  or  Amurru 
as  the  original  habitat  of  this  deity.  Compare  also 
I-ti-Da-gan  in  the  Cappadocian  tablets,  published  by 
Sayce  in  a  recent  number  of  the  Bahyloniaca.  The 
West  Semitic  names  found  in  the  tablet  from  JJana  (see 
Ungnad,  B.  A.,  VI,  5,  p.  28)  also  support  this  view.  In 
these  tablets  the  deities  Shamash  and  Dagan  are  found 
in  the  oath  formula.  The  tablets  said  to  have  been 
found  at  Ed-Dcir  support  the  views  of  those  who  have 
held  that  his  worship  radiated  from  the  highlands 
between  Palestine  and  Mesopotamia. 

LAHMU  AND  LAHAMU. 

The  god  Labmu  and  goddess  Lakamu,  which  occur 
in  the  Marduk-Tiamat  legend  and  in  a  few  syllabaries 
and  incantation  texts,  also  appear  to  be  Amoritish. 
The  fact  that  they  play  no  part  in  the  pantheon  indi- 
cates foreign  origin.  As  has  been  pointed  out  by  others, 
Lafi^mu  probably  is  one  of  the  elements  in  BUh-Lebem, 
which  was  the  name  of  two  cities  in  Palestine. 

Other  distinctively  Semitic  gods  may  be  regarded  in 
the  same  way.  Several  of  those  discussed  above  under 
the  heading  "  Other  Deities/'  may  prove  eventually  to 
have  been  solar  in  their  original  habitat;  but  more 
evidence  must  be  forthcoming  before  this  can  be  deter- 
mined. This  much  can  be  said,  they  are  in  all  probability 
West  Semitic  deities. 

Besides  the  argument  based  on  the  culture  and  relig- 
ion, the  Babylonian  script  offers  strong  evidence  in 
support  of  this  thesis. 


148  AMURRU   HOME   OF   NORTHERN   SEMITES 

It  is  a  well  established  fact  that  the  northern  group 
of  Semitic  languages,  i.e.,  the  Amoraic,  Aramaic  and 
Assyro-Babylonian,  are  more  closely  related  to  each 
other  than  they  are  to  the  languages  of  the  southern 
group,  namely,  Arabic  and  Abyssinian.  Inasmuch  as 
there  are  so  many  elements  that  the  northern  cultures 
have  in  common,  it  seems  natural  to  assume  that  they 
had  a  common  origin;  and  the  question  arises  which  is 
the  earlier. 

The  Babylonian  script,  as  is  understood,  is  an  adap- 
tation of  the  Sumerian  cuneiform  system  for  the  Semitic 
language  that  was  brought  into  the  comitry;  and  in 
that  script  the  weaker  consonants  or  radicals  are  elided, 
or  contracted,  or  appear  as  vowels.  A  study  of  the 
script  of  the  Northern  group  makes  it  most  difficult  to 
understand,  if  the  Babylonian  is  the  older  language, 
how  the  weak  radicals,  which  had  disappeared,  should 
have  been  restored,  and  the  roots  correctly  introduced 
in  the  alphabetic  script  of  the  Western  languages.  For 
example,  it  is  difficult  to  understand  how  Bel,  Oni  and 
Ti'amat,  or  the  corresponding  belu,  ilru  and  tdmdu, 
could  be  correctly  introduced  as  ^J73,  ^15^  and  DlUn. 
Naturally  some  Babylonian  loan  words*  are  found  in 
the  West,  but  would  we  not  expect  generally  to  find 
many  peculiar  formations,  due  to  this  transportation 
and  transformation.  The  differences  in  the  verbal 
formation,  and  other  peculiarities  of  the  Babylonian, 


*  More  discrimination  should  hereafter  be  exercised  in  declaring 
words  which  the  Babylonian  and  Hebrew  liave  in  common  to  be 
of  Babylonian  origin. 


AMURRU   IN   CUNEIFORM   INSCRIPTIONS      149 

due  to  the  fact  that  the  written  language  was  created 
by  Sumerian  scribes  or  those  familiar  with  the  Sumerian 
writing  (who  constructed  grammatical  rules  in  order  to 
use  their  own  script  for  the  Semitic  tongue  that  appeared 
in  their  midst),  would  also  show  themselves  prominently 
in  the  Western  languages,  if  the  influence  of  Babylonia 
had  been  what  is  claimed  for  it. 

We  have  seen  that  in  the  earliest  known  period  of 
Semitic  Babylonian  history,  which  belongs  to  the  age 
apparently  not  far  removed  from  the  time  when  the 
Semites  entered  Babylonia,  Amurru  was  already  an 
important  factor  in  the  affairs  of  nations,  and  that 
it  was  a  land  which  the  great  world  conquerors  of 
Babylonia,  both  Sumerian  and  Semitic,  took  pains  to 
subjugate.  This  leads  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
culture  of  Amurru  was  at  that  period  already  old. 
This,  as  we  have  seen  in  Part  I,  is  fully  substantiated 
by  the  Egyptian  inscriptions.  We  have  also  seen  that 
in  the  earliest  Semitic  period  of  Babylonian  history, 
the  most  important  deity  that  we  recognize  as  Semitic 
belongs  to  the  land  Amurru,  and  especially  that  this  sun- 
deity  played  a  most  important  part  in  the  Babylonian 
religion  and  nomenclature.  And  we  have  further  seen 
that  there  are  reasons  for  asserting  that  nearly  all  the 
Semitic  deities  of  early  Babylonian  history  can  be 
shown  to  be  originally  West  Semitic,  that  is  either 
Amoritish  or  Aramaic. 

Taking  everything  into  consideration,  and  especially 
the  fact  that  the  Semites  are  not  indigenous  to  Baby- 
lonia, it  seems  reasonable  to  postulate  that  they  came 
from  the  West. 


AMURRU  m  WEST  SEMITIC 
INSCRIPTIONS 


In  the  Old  Testament,  the  only  form  of  the  name 
of  the  land  known  as  AmurrH,  generally  recognized, 
refers  to  the  inhabitants,  and  appears  with  the  Gentilic 
ending,  i.e.,  'Amori  (H^N,  LXX  is  'Ap.oppaio^);  and 
in  nearly  every  instance  the  word  has  the  article.  The 
Amorites  are  considered  to  be  the  descendants  of  the 
fourth  son  of  Canaan  (cf.  Gen.  10  :  16  and  1  Chron. 
1  :  14).  They  form  part  of  the  ancient  inhabitants  of 
Palestine,  and  yet  under  the  name  are  included  the 
Canaanites,  Girgashites,  Hittites,  Hivites,  Jebusites 
and  Perizites,  and  once  (Gen.  15  :  19-21)  the  Kenites, 
Kenizzites,  Kadmonites  and  Rephaim.  From  the  Old 
Testament  it  would  seem  that  Amorite  history  reached 
far  back  into  antiquity,  and  that  the  people  had  main- 
tained their  identity  down  to  the  Hebrew  period.  As 
a  nation,  however,  they  had  then  begun  to  disintegrate 
and  were  losing  prestige.  The  domination  of  the  Hit- 
tites in  the  middle  of  the  second  millennium  doubtless 
brought  this  about.  But  there  is  every  indication  that 
they  were  originally  an  extensive  and  powerful  people, 
whose  chief  location  was  the  mountainous  region  north 
of  what  we  now  recognize  as  Palestine,  covering  the 
district,  it  seems,  as  far  north  as  the  Orontes;  in  other 

words,  to  the  Hittite  land. 

160 


AMURRU  IN  WEST  SEMITIC  INSCRIPTIONS    151 

In  the  Old  Testament  they  are  generally  represented 
as  a  people  living  in  the  highlands.  Palestine  in  the 
early  period  seems  to  have  been  extensively  controlled 
by  the  Amorites.  Macalister,  in  the  excavations  at 
Gezer,  finds  traces  of  a  people  he  calls  Amorites  at  a 
date  which  he  fixes  about  2500  B.C.  Naturally  there 
may  be  more  ancient  sites  in  the  land  than  Gezer  where 
the  Amorites  lived.  After  this  period  the  occupation 
of  the  city  seems  to  have  been  supplanted  by  the 
Israelites,  about  the  middle  of  the  second  millennium. 
Although  the  Amorites  had  their  day  and  ceased  to  be 
a  factor  as  a  people,  they  held  various  cities  for  centuries 
succeeding  the  occupation  of  Canaan  by  Israel.* 

As  is  well  known,  four-fifths  of  the  letters  found  in 
Egypt  at  Tel  el-Amarna,  which  represent  the  official 
and  friendly  correspondence  in  the  Babylonian  language 
of  Amenophis  III  and  IV  in  the  fifteenth  century  B.C., 
consist  of  reports  and  communications  from  vassals  of 
the  Egyptian  kings  in  Western  Asia.  In  this  great  land 
the  names  of  districts  are  practically  all  Semitic,  as 
Amurru,  Najirima,  Amqi,  Ziri-Bashani  and  Gar.  As 
geographical  names  frequently  are  retained  from  one 
era  to  another,  we  realize  that  the  inhabitants  of  the 
land  prior  to  this  age  in  all  probability  were  Semitic. 
We  reach  the  same  conclusion  when  such  names  of  the 


^  For  a  discussion  of  the  Amorites  based  upon  the  Old  Testa- 
ment see  W.  M.  Miiller,  in  the  article  "Amorites"  in  the  Jewish 
EncyclopoBdia;  Sayce,  in  Hastings'  Dictionary  of  the  Bible;  or 
Barton,  in  the  One  Volume  Dictionary,  p.  271.  Also  Barton,  ibid,, 
p.  110,  on  the  "  Canaanites. " 


152  AMURRU    HOME    OF   NORTHERN    SEMITES 

cities  are  taken  into  consideration,  as  $urri,  ^iduna, 
Gubla,  Qideshu,  Urusalim  and  others,  some  of  which 
at  least  are  considered  to  have  had  a  great  antiquity. 

The  predominance  of  Semitic  personal  names  is  so 
evident,  in  these  letters  that  it  is  only  necessary  to 
mention  the  fact.  The  consideration  of  the  names 
Abdi-Ashirta,  his  son  Aziru,  and  others,  indicates  their 
Semitic  origin.  Fm-ther,  it  is  sufficient  to  recall  that  the 
letters  from  this  great  region  betray  the  fact  that  the 
native  tongue  of  the  writer  is  Hebraic.  In  other  words, 
these  letters  make  us  acquainted  with  the  fact  that  the 
culture  of  this  land,  which  is  Semitic,  is  of  a  highly 
developed  character,  indicating  that,  back  of  what  we 
have  become  familiar  with,  there  must  be  a  long  period 
of  development  covering  millenniums.  The  names 
clearly  indicate  also  that  the  chief  deity  of  this  region 
was  solar,  who,  as  we  have  seen  above,  appears  under 
different  names  or  epithets,  as  Vru,  Adad,  Milku, 
Urash,  NIN-IB,  Shamash,  etc. 

The  theory  advanced  years  ago,^  that  the  Amorites 
depicted  on  the  walls  of  the  Egyptian  temples  and  tombs 
with  short  and  pointed  beards,  blue  eyes  and  reddish 
hair,  high  forehead  and  rather  prominent  cheek  bones, 
thin  lips  and  straight  noses,  show  that  they  physiologi- 
cally were  Indo-EuropsGans,  does  not  seem  to  have 
found  acceptance.  The  monuments  show  that  the 
Amorites  represent  in  practically  every  instance  a  Semitic 
people  (see  p.  29).     This  would  imply  that  in  that  age 


*  Sayce,  Early  History  of  the  Hebrews^  p.  42. 


AMURRU  IN  WEST  SEMITIC  INSCRIPTIONS    153 

already  the  name  may  have  been  used  simply  from  a 
geographical  point  of  view. 

Macalister  found,  as  the  result  of  his  two  years^ 
diggings  at  Gezer  in  Palestine,  where  he  discovered 
an  Amorite  high  place,  that  the  earliest  aborigines  were 
troglodytes.^  They  were  small  in  stature,  being  on  an 
average  an  inch  or  two  over  five  feet  in  height.  A 
study  of  the  partially  cremated  skulls  and  bones  by 
Professor  Alexander  Macalister,  of  Cambridge,  led  to 
the  conclusion  that  they  represented  a  people  of  a  pre- 
Semitic  occupation  of  that  city.  Fortunately  the  mode 
of  burial  by  the  Semites  at  a  later  period  was  by  inhu- 
mation. The  remains  show  that  they  were  taller, 
stronger  and  a  larger  boned  race  than  the  earlier  people. 
They  seem  to  have  made  their  appearance,  according  to 
Stewart  Macalister,  the  explorer,  at  about  2500  B.C. 
"These  Semites,''  he  thinks,  ''had  relations  with  Egypt 
as  early  as  the  Twelfth  dynasty.  They  made  or  began 
the  great  megalithic  high  place;  practised  sacrifice 
of  the  first  born  and  foundation  sacrifice;  had  many 
varieties  of  grain  for  food;  made  pottery  of  the  so-called 
early  pre-Israelite  type;  were  strongly  influenced  by 
Egypt,  but  much  less  by  Babylonia.  The  beginning  of 
the  late  Semitic  period  synchronizes  with  the  settlement 
of  the  Hebrews  in  Canaan,  but  these  do  not  seem  to 
have  had  undisputed  possession  of  Gezer,  "^ 

The  names  of  Amorites  mentioned  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment do  not  throw  much  light  upon  their  origin.     While 

*  See  Bible  Side  Lights  from  the  Mounds  of  Gezer,  p.  43. 
'  Lyon,  Harvard  Theological  Reviev),  190S,  p.  82. 


154  AMURRU   HOME   OF   NORTHERN    SEMITES 

some  are  called  Amorites,  that  term  may  have  been 
used  very  early  in  the  sense  that  it  was  in  later  biblical 
times,  when  all  the  peoples  were  included  under  that 
general  name  (see  above),  Mamre,  Eshcol  and  Aner 
(Anram).  Og  and  Sihon^  are  mentioned  as  Amorites. 
In  Joshua  10  :  3,  Hoham^  of  Hebron,  Piram  of  Jarmuth, 
Japhia  of  Lachish,  and  Debir  of  Eglon  are  mentioned  as 
Amorite  kings.  These  names,  which  can  be  derived  from 
Semitic  stems,  throw  light  upon  the  situation.  The  name 
of  Adoni-Zedek,  the  king  of  Jerusalem,  who  associated 
himself  with  the  others,  contams  well  recognized  Semitic 
elements.  The  same  is  true  of  Malki-Zedek,  king  of 
Salem  (perhaps  Jerusalem,  see  Appendix),  of  an  early 
period. 

It  is  unfortunate  that  we  do  not  have  more  names  of 
persons  m  the  Old  Testament  who  can  be  identified 
immistakably  as  Amorites.  It  is  certain,  however,  that 
a  large  percentage  of  Old  Testament  names  of  the  early 
period  in  Palestine  are  Semitic,  the  same  as  the  names  in 
the  Amarna  letters,  which  represent  the  inhabitants  of 
Canaan  prior  to  the  entrance  of  Israel.  We  have,  there- 
fore, every  indication  that  not  only  the  language  of 
the  land  was  what  is  called  Hebraic,  but  the  names 
and  religious  cult  indicate  at  least  that  most  of  the 
inhabitants  were  Semitic. 

^  piT'D  perhaps  contains  the  element  "D,  i-e.,  moon-god  Sin; 
see  above. 

'  Hoham  is  found  in  Minsean,  cf .  Dmn  =  Haujiam ;  cf .  Hommel, 
Ancient  Hebrew  Tradition,  \i.  221  I.  Japhia  is  perhaps  found  in  the 
Minaean  j;D''Sx  =  Il-yapi'a;  cf.  Hommel,  Ancient  Hebrew  Tradition, 
p.  248  f. 


AMURRU  IN  WEST  SEMITIC  INSCRIPTIONS    155 

The  Old  Testament  supplies  us  with  only  scanty 
ethnological  data  concerning  the  Amorites;  but  if 
Macalister  is  correct  in  his  statement  that  the  pre- 
Israelitish  Amorites  who  occupied  Gezer  were  ethnologic- 
ally  Semitic,  we  have  one  very  important  fact  established. 
Although  we  know  that  Aryans  or  perhaps  Turanians 
were  also  there,  we  may  conclude  that  most  of  the  people 
who  lived  in  that  great  region,  which  geographically 
was  called  Amurru,  from  a  very  early  period  not  only 
spoke  a  Semitic  language,  but  in  the  early  period  were 
Semites,  and  that  the  land  was  at  a  very  early  time  an 
important  center  of  Semitic  culture. 

The  people  from  Amurru  who  appear  in  the  Baby- 
lonian tablets  generally  bear  Semitic  names.  The  re- 
ligion of  Amurru  that  found  its  way  into  the  Euphrates 
valley,  as  we  have  tried  to  show,  is  Semitic.  In  short, 
everything  points  to  the  fact  that  the  dominant  people 
in  the  Westland  were  Semites  in  the  millenniums  pre- 
cedmg  the  Amarna  or  biblical  age.  This  being  true,  and 
bearing  in  mind  that  the  solar  worship  of  the  Babylonian 
Semites  goes  back  to  Amurru,  we  should  find  many 
traces  of  the  worship  in  that  land  in  which  it  was 
indigenous. 

Inasmuch  as  the  Amorites  figure  so  prominently 
in  the  early  period  in  Palestine,  it  is  reasonable  to  expect 
to  find  in  the  Old  Testament  traces  of  the  worship  of  the 
chief  deity  of  this  people  whose  name  is  written  Amurru^^ 

*  In  South  Arabian  there  is  a  name  that  seems  to  be  compounded 
with  this  element,  ^DJoSn,  king  of  Saba,  cf .  Lidzbarski,  Ephemeris, 
II,  p.  387. 


156  AMURRU   HOME   OF   NORTHERN    SEMITES 

Vru,  etc.,  as  well  as  *)1>{  in  the  ^\ramaic  of  Babylonia. 
In  tliis  connection  a  most  interesting  passage  is  to  be 
found  in  Job  31  :  26,  where  in  parallelism  with  "  moon, " 
*T)X  instead  of  Shemesh,  "sun,"  is  found.  The  name 
of  the  deity  seems  to  be  found  in  ni5<,  ^7^^^,  ^nn^^, 
r^n^^  and  niXns:^.  The  element  'Vr  is  usually  trans- 
lated "light,  flame,  or  fiery."  The  Septuagint  shows 
that  'O'r,  not  the  common  ^Or,  "light,"  is  meant. 
These  names,  therefore,  are  to  be  explained:  "My 
i/rw,"  or  simply  ''Vru''  (with  a  kose  suffix);  ^'Vru 
is  God, "  "  Oru  is  Jahweh, "  like  Vri-Marduh  and  Vru- 
milki,  see  above;  and  "Shaddai  is  Vru,''  cf.  *12i^m!^ 
and  ^"TtJ'^Di^,  both  ^1^  and  *Dy  being  also  equivalents 
to  the  names  of  deities.  Before  considering  other  occur- 
rences of  the  names  in  the  Old  Testament,  let  us  inquire 
whether  it  occurs  in  the  Amarna  letters. 

Many  of  the  letters  found  at  Amarna  having  been 
written  in  the  fifteenth  century  B.C.,  in  Amurru,  and 
referring  to  the  land,  it  is  natural  to  expect  to  find 
in  them  both  the  name  of  the  country  and  of  the  god, 
Amurru  or  Vru.  Amurru,  as  the  name  of  the  land,  has 
long  ago  been  recognized,  but  not  the  deity.  The  god, 
however,  is  also  found  hi  the  Amarna  letters,  in  the 
name  MilMru.  In  these  epistles  we  find  a  Milki-ili 
and  an  Ili-milki.  A  parallel  formation  compounded 
with  Vru  would  be  Milkuru,  with  which  Vru-milki 
of  the  Sennacherib  inscription  may  be  compared. 
This  same  name,  written  Mil-ki-U-ri,  belongs  to  a  slave 
in  an  Assyrian  document,  dated  in  the  reign  of  Sargon.* 

»Cf.  X.  5.,  IV,  p.  112. 


AMURRU  IN  WEST  SEMITIC  INSCRIPTIONS    157 

Perhaps  the  same  name  is  to  be  seen  in  Vru{MAR'TU)- 
Ma-lik  in  a  contract  published  by  Poebel/  dated  in  the 
First  dynasty  of  Babylon.^  Malik  may  mean  "coun- 
sellor, "  but  is  the  way  the  name  of  the  deity  is  written. 
If  so  tiru  in  these  names  seems  to  represent  the  deity 
Amurru. 

This  explanation  also  throws  light  on  another  name, 
1*?0*1J^,  found  in  a  Phoenician  inscription  at  Byblus, 
belonging  to  the  fourth  or  fifth  century  B.C.  Lidz- 
barski^  translated  the  first  element  "light."  Cooke* 
compared  it  with  '7^<^1^{  and  Urumilki,  and  trans- 
lated "Fire  of  Milk."  The  comparison  with  ")\y, 
however,  is  correct,  but  the  name  is  the  familiar  one 
mentioned  above  and  means  "  Oru  is  Milk. "  This 
defective  writing  enables  us  to  suggest  at  least  that 
^'^KIK,  the  name  of  a  son  of  Gad,  may  be  translated 
"  Vru  is  my  God."  '^J^HK,  usually  translated  "hearth 
of  El"  or  "Uoness  of  El,"  a  name  applied  to  Jerusalem, 
may  also  contain  the  element.  For  a  discussion  of  "  The 
name  Jerusalem, "  which  contains  Vru,  see  Appendix. 

Before  the  recently  published  texts  of  Pognon, 
Inscriptions  Semitiques,  reached  my  hands.  Professor 
Montgomery^  kindly  called  my  attention  to  the  opening 
lines  of  the  new  Zakir  inscription,  which  reads:  "The 
stele  which  Zakir  of  Hamath  and  La'ash  dedicated  to 


» Bab.  Exp.,  Vol.  VI,  pt.  2. 

'  For  other  formations  with  milku,  cf.  K.A  T},  p.  471. 

•  N ordsemitische  Epigraphik,  210. 

*  North  Semitic  Inscriptions,  p.  20. 

•See  Montgomery,  Biblical  World,  February,  1909,  p.  158. 


158  AMURRU   HOME   OF   NORTHERN   SEMITES 

El-Ur  (*)l'7K)."  He  suggested  for  comparison  with  the 
deity  the  name  of  the  antediluvian  Babylonian  king 
according  to  Berosus,  namely,  "AXwpo<i,  Lidzbarski,  in  a 
review  of  the  inscription^  which  has  since  appeared, 
also  admits  that  the  comparison  with  this  name  is  invit- 
ing. Grimme^  properly  regarded  1^  to  be  equivalent  to 
Awar  =  Babylonian  Amaru  =  Marduh. 

Unquestionably  ^1  represents  the  sun-deity  t)m. 
It  is  a  most  interesting  and  important  fact  that  this 
Aramaic  inscription,  which  belongs  to  the  earliest  known 
in  that  language,  shows  that  Zakir,  king  of  Hamath  and 
La 'ash,  dedicated  the  stele  which  he  erects  to  El-Ur. 
The  comparison  of  El-Ur  with  the  first  name  of  the 
antediluvian  Babylonian  king  'AXwpo^  seems  to  be  most 
reasonable.  But  not  alone  the  fh-st  of  the  list,  but  the 
second,  third,  fifth,  and  perhaps  the  ninth,  contain  the 
name  of  the  deity:  'JAarra^o?  {Alapaurus,  Alaporus), 
^A/xtUapo^j  MeyaXapn^s  and  pcrhaps  "ApdaTTj^.  For  a  fuller 
discussion  of  these  names  see  Part  I. 

The  use  of  El  (^N)  in  connection  with  the  name 
Ur  (11)  is  most  interesting,  especially  when  we  recall 
El-Shaddai  (HtT  ^H)  and  El-Elyon  QV^^;  *7N)  of 
the  Old  Testament.  Originally,  as  mentioned  above, 
these  may  have  been  epithets,  but  were  not  considered 
as  such  later  on.  Prefixing  the  word  for  "God"  seems 
to  have  been  a  characteristic  of  the  Western  Semites. 
Compare   also   Al-Nashbu-milki,    Al-Si',^  Il-Teh,iri-abi, 

»  Lit.  ZentralblaU,  1908,  p.  582. 
'  Onent.  Lit.  Zeit.,  1909,  p.  16. 
^  Johns,  Assyrian  Doomsday  Book,  p.  15. 


AMURRU  IN  WEST  SEMITIC  INSCRIPTIONS    159 

Il-Tebri-nilri\  and  Bariki-Il-Tammesh,^  Il-Tamesh-dtni,^ 
II -  Tammesh  -  ilai,^  II  -  Tammesh  -  natannu, *  II  -  Tammesh- 
nUr,^  Ahi-Il-Temeshj^  Il-Teri-h^anana,'^  etc.  The  Rev. 
Dr.  Johns  thus  regarded  the  Al  which  is  prefixed  to  the 
two  examples  found  in  his  texts.  Professor  Hilprecht, 
in  his  Editorial  Preface  to  my  Babylonian  Expedition, 
vol.  X,  p.  XIII,  asked:  "But  where  did  the  Assyrians 
ever  pronounce  the  word  for  'god'  (7i^)  in  connec- 
tion with  the  god's  name  immediately  following  in  their 
inscriptions?"  He  further  said:  "I  do  not  believe 
that  the  people  about  ffarran  pronounced  it  either. 
Al  in  the  name  quoted  can  scarcely  be  anything  else 
than  the  article  al  or  el,  known  from  Lidzbarski's  list 
of  proper  names  to  have  been  used  in  connection  with 
certain  deities. "  Cf .  ^^;;D'?^^-^Di;,  ^'?;^n'?N-D-):i  C  The 
Ba'al"),  nnsr'^K-no:!  ("The  moon-god"),  etc.  Tall- 
qvist*  accepted  Hilprecht's  view. 

In  the  first  place,  the  names  quoted  from  Lidzbar- 
ski's  work  to  prove  the  point  at  issue  are  not  West 
Semitic  nor  Aramaic,  but  are  Sinaitic  or  Arabic.  And 
as  a  matter  of  fact  it  is  not  known  that  the  article  was 
used  in  Old  Arabic;  and  further,  even  if  it  was,  as  in 
the  late  period,  it  would  not  have  been  used  with  a 

»  Cf.  Clay,  B.  E.,  X. 

'  Strassmaier,  Nbk.,  363  :  4. 

»  Nbn.,  583  :  18. 

*  Nbn.,   497  :  4. 
»  Cyr.,  58  :  6. 

•  Nbn.,  638  :  4. 
'  Cyr.,  177  :  3. 

'  Neu-babylonisches  Namenbuch,  p.  288. 


160  AMURRU   HOME   OF   NORTHERN    SEMITES 

proper  name  like  Shemesh.  As  stated,  the  names  are 
Aramaean  and  the  Aramaic  did  not  have  an  article; 
so  Johns  was  right  in  considering  this  element  ^Z  to  be 
the  word  for  "god/^ 

These  writings  ID  for  the  deity's  name  enable  us 
to  explain  satisfactorily  some  West  Semitic  names. 
Cooke*  calls  attention  to  the  prefix  1)  in  fDI^I,  a  name 
of  a  priest  of  Baal-hammon  in  a  North  Punic  inscription 
from  Algiers,  and  also  in  "l^Oyi  in  a  Punic  inscription 
from  Thugga,  in  Eastern  Numidia.  pD  in  the  latter 
doubtless  means  "prefect"  (compare  the  Assyrian 
shaknu),  and  is  also  a  divine  name  or  epithet,  cf. 
fn*"pD.  The  name  could  mean  "  t)ru  is  Shaknu,^'  like 
Oru-milk,  '^lO'lV  and  11*  1)  also  contains  the  element ; 
"^10  and  111  both  appearing  elsewhere  as  personal  names.^ 

If  11  in  West  Semitic  inscriptions  represents  the 
deity  Vru,  it  is  reasonable  to  expect  the  name  written 
*y  in  the  Hebrew  script,  as  initial  1  usually  passes  into  ^ 
The  personal  name  '^pDI*  {LXX,  hpo^aaX)^  according  to 
Judges  6  :  32,  is  explained  "  let  Baal  contend, "  as  if 
it  were  a  Jussive  form.  Scholars,  appreciating  the 
difficulties  involved  in  this  explanation,  have  pro- 
posed that  the  root  is  Hl^  as  in  '?^?  ll^and  '^N  H*  (see 
Brown's  Heh.  Die,  p.  937).     The  transliterations  of  the 

LXX,  namely,  \4pl3aaX^  "lapjSaaX,  'leapojSaaX,  'Iepa,3aaX,  SCCm 

to  support  the  proposed  change.     Yet  in  all  probability 
the  name  is  to  be  interpreted  "  Ur  is  Baal. " 

*  North  Semitic  Inscriptions,  p.  146. 
'  Lidzbarski,  Nord.  Epig. 
■Cf.  Lidzbarski,  Nord.  Epig. 


AMURRU  IN  WEST  SEMITIC  INSCRIPTIONS    161 

It  would  be  rather  sui-prising  if  the  god  Vru  or 
Amurru  were  not  found  in  the  tablets  discovered  in 
Cappadocia  which  have  been  published  by  Delitzsch/ 
Sayce^  and  Pinches.^  Shamash,  Ishtar,  Ashur,  Ann,  Adad, 
Malik,  Dagan,  etc.,  have  been  recognized,  but  not,  as 
far  as  I  can  see,  the  god  Amurru.  I  venture,  how- 
ever, to  suggest  that  this  element  is  to  be  recognized 
in  names  like  Amur-ilu,  A-mur-Ashur,  A-mur-Shamash, 
A-mur-Ishtar.  These  naturally  might  be  translated,  with 
Hommel,^  Amur-ilu,  "I  beheld  the  god'';  but  it  seems 
to  be  reasonable,  in  the  light  of  these  investigations, 
to  propose  that  the  name  signifies  ^^ Amur  is  god." 
Compare  also  Ili(NI-NI)-a-ma-ra,^  Pinches,  ibid.,  p.  50. 

Finding  that  in  Babylonia  Mar  was  extensively 
used  alongside  of  Amar  or  Ur,  we  should  expect  to  find 
the  same  to  be  the  case  in  the  Westland  itself,  and 
especially  because  of  the  frequent  change  of  t2  and  1. 
The  deity  or  epithet  occurs  in  the  Aramaic  and  Phoe- 
nician inscriptions,  cf.  ^flHO,  ^DD*1D,  ^1D*)!D,  etc. 
It  has  been  conjectured  that  HD,  originally  used 
in   an   appellative    sense,   meant   "lord"    (^^^0),   and 

^  Kappadokische  Keilschrijttafeln,  Vol.  XIV,  A.  K.  G.  W.,  pp. 
207  £f. 

^  Babyloniaca. 

'  Annals  of  Archoeology  and  Anthropology,  Vol.  I,  No.  3,  p.  49  ff. 

*  Anc.  Heb.  Trad.,  p.  67. 

*  This  makes  it  plausible  to  assume  that  perhaps  such  names  as 
Amur-Mli  and  Amur-Sin  of  the  First  dynasty,  cf.  Ranke,  P.  N., 
p.  66,  and  also  Ilima-amur,  quoted  by  Hommel,  Anc.  Heb.  Trad., 
p.  141,  n.,  may  also  contain  the  same  element.  Compare  such  parallel 
names  as  Ili-ma-a-bi  and  Ili-ma-a-hi,  Ranke,  P.  N.,  p.  101,  and  the 
Hebrew  S«a'3K. 

11 


162  AMURRU   HOME    OF   NORTHERN    SEMITES 

was  afterwards  used  as  a  title  of  a  deity.  Hoffmann- 
translates  *nn:D  "Adonis  lebt."  This  is  not  impos- 
sible, but  a  better  explanation  would  be  to  take  ID 
(Mar)  as  another  form  of  ^1  (War),  etc.— in  other  words, 
the  element  under  discussion.  Through  the  kindness  of 
Professor  Montgomery  my  attention  has  been  called  to 
the  name  of  a  god  or  demon,  i.e.,  a  depotentized  deity, 
written  Nn'?5<*10  in  Pognon,  Inscriptions  Semitiques 
(p.  82).  The  same  demon  occurs  in  a  Syriac  incantation 
bowl  published  by  Stiibe.^  In  the  light  of  the  above  facts, 
it  seems  reasonable  to  identify  this  god  or  demon  with  the 
once  important  deity  or  epithet  of  the  ancient  Amorites, 
whose  cult  had  practically  disappeared,  as  far  as  we 
know,  at  the  time  this  inscription  was  written.  This 
may  account  for  the  writing  A  and  TUR-USH  for  the 
first  element  of  Bir-Hadad;  that  is,  the  signs  which  had 
the  value  mar  were  used  (see  p.  132). 

This  form  of  the  name  seems  to  be  found  also  in 
the  name  of  the  land  and  mountain  HHO  of  Genesis 
22  :  2  and  2  Chronicles  3:1.  Siegfried  and  Stade 
regarded  the  name  as  a  "Wortspiel  mit  JlXl.'" 
Concerning  the  reading  of  the  Peshitta  which  makes 
it  Nn1D^5  {i.e.,  "of  the  Amorites"),  Driver  thinks 
"it  has  some  claim  to  be  considered  the  original  one.'' 
The  Septuagint  transliterates  the  name  of  the  moimt 
upon  which  Solomon  built  the  temple,  2  Chronicles  3:1, 

»Z.  A.,  XI,  p.  240. 

'  Judische-Babylonische  Zaubertexte,  p.  22. 

•  For  other  explanations  of  the  name,  see  Driver  in  Hastings' 
Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  p.  434. 


AMURRU  IN  WEST  SEMITIC  INSCRIPTIONS    163 

Too  Aixopeta.  When  we  consider  the  meaning  of  the 
name  Jerusalem  (see  Appendix),  and  the  passage 
in  Ezekiel  16  :  3  concerning  the  city,  namely,  "thy 
father  was  an  Amorite  and  thy  mother  a  Hittite," 
it  seems  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  name  Amurru 
is  contained  in  it,  and  that  the  reading  preserved  by 
the  Septuagint  has  the  fuller  form,  and  also  that  the 
place  whither  Abraham  went  to  sacrifice  Isaac,  which 
bears  the  same  name,  was  in  all  probability  the  Amorite 
land,  or  rather  Amoria  proper,  which  was  north  of 
Canaan;  for  after  he  had  journeyed  from  Southern 
Canaan  three  days,  he  saw  afar  ofT  the  land  Moriah. 

The  etymology  of  ancient  geographical  names  offers 
many  difficulties,  due  to  the  fact  that  they  may  be  of 
great  antiquity,  or  belong  to  an  era  of  which  we  have 
little  or  no  literature.  The  names  may  even  belong  to  a 
people  whose  existence  is  shrouded  in  obscurity,  and 
although  they  are  continued  in  use,  their  traditional 
pronunciation  may  have  suffered  so  much  that  they  are 
of  comparatively  little  value  in  determining  the  original 
signification.  A  great  many  names  of  Palestine  are 
known  to  be  of  Pre-Israelitish  origin.  This  we  learn  not 
only  from  the  Old  Testament  but  from  the  Amarna 
tablets,  as  well  as  from  the  lists  of  such  Egyptian  kings  as 
Thothmes  III.,  and  these  (see  p.  151)  are  generally  Semitic. 

Another  personal  name,  the  etymology  of  which 
is  regarded  as  obscure,  is  '^i^D^H^.  It  occurs  twice 
in  1  Chronicles  8  :  34,  and  once  in  9  :  40,  in  which 
verse  also  the  variant  ^i^D'HD  is  found.  Some 
(Brown  and  Buhl)  regard  the  latter  name  as  an  error, 


164  AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

while  others  (Siegfried  and  Stade  and  Gray)  consider 
the  fuller  form  an  error  for  '?;^D  HO.  The  translitera- 
tion of  the  Septuagint,  which  is  iihpi,3aaX,  supports  the 
latter  view.  Brown  translates  "Baal  is  advocate "(?)• 
Gray'  translates  "Hero  of  Baal."  The  latter  is  reason- 
able, but  it  seems  to  me,  in  the  light  of  the  above,  that 
the  name  more  probably  means  ^' Mar  is  Baal." 


Hebrew  Proper  Names,  p.  201,  note  3. 


APPENDIX 


I.    UR  OF  THE  CHALDEES 


For  more  than  two  thousand  years  efforts  have  been 
made  to  identify  the  site  of  "  Ur  of  the  Chaldees, "  the 
home  of  Abraham.  In  recent  centm-ies  Urfa  or  Orfa, 
which  the  Greeks  called  Edessa,  had  been  regarded  as 
the  ancient  city/  Sir  Henry  Rawlinson  in  1855  found 
bricks  at  Muqayyar  in  Southern  Babylonia,  from  which 
he  gathered  that  the  ancient  name  of  the  city  was  Hur, 
Subsequently  it  was  found  that  the  reading  of  the  name 
was  Urumma,  and  in  late  Babylonian  Uru,  i.e.,  with 
a  final  vowel.  The  almost  general  acceptance  of  this 
identification  is  due  to  the  fact  that  no  attractive  reasons 
have  been  given  for  any  other  site.  Dillman  and  Kittel 
have  strongly  opposed  this  identification,^  but  ever 
since  Rawlinson  has  advanced  his  view  the  number  of 
those  who  have  accepted  it  has  steadily  increased,  so 
that  now  it  has  become  quite  general.  Without 
attempting  an  exhaustive  treatment  of  the  subject,  let 
us  briefly  review  the  facts  upon  which  it  rests. 

The  Old  Testament  says  Terah  took  Abram  and 
Sarai  his  wife,  Lot  his  grandson,  and  brought  them  forth 
from  Ur  of  the  Chaldees  to  go  into  the  land  of  Canaan; 

^  For  a  discussion,  as  well  as  references  to  the  literature  on  the 
subject,  see  Pinches,  in  Hastings'  Bible  Dictionary,  IV,  p.  835, 
and  Cheyne,  in  Encyclopcedia  Bihlica,  IV. 

^  Dillman,  Genesis,  Ed.  6,  p.  213  f,,  and  Kittel,  Geschichte  der 
Hebraer,  §  17. 

167 


168  AMURRU    HOME    OF   NORTHERN    SEMITES 

and  they  came  unto  Haran  and  dwelt  there.  After 
the  death  of  Terah,  the  Lord  said  unto  Abraham, 
''Get  thee  out  of  thy  country,  and  from  thy  kingdom, 
and  from  thy  father's  house,  unto  a  land  that  I  will 
show  thee." 

St.  Stephen  (see  Acts  7  :  2,  4)  speaks  of  the  place 
as  being  in  Mesopotamia.  While  this  is  rather  indefinite, 
and  doubtless  an  admission  that  the  exact  site  was  not 
known,  it  does  not  point  to  Shumer,  or  Southern  Baby- 
lonia, as  the  country. 

Eupolemus,  who  lived  about  150  B.C.,  as  quoted 
by  Eusebius,  speaks  of  the  place  of  Abraham,  who  was 
the  inventor  of  astrology  and  Chaldean  magic,  as  a 
city  of  Babylonia  called  Kafiapivrij  which  is  called 
by  some  the  city  of  Oupirj.  As  Eupolemus  was  dis- 
cussing Hebrew  history,  it  would  seem  that  he  reflects 
the  opinion  of  the  Jews  at  that  time. 

The  mention  of  Camarina  offered  a  reason  for  the 
identification  with  Muqayyar,  the  Urumma  of  the 
early  inscriptions,  or  the  Uru  of  the  later  period,  because 
of  the  Arabic  word  gawar,  meaning  "moon,"  and  be- 
cause Muqayyar  in  ancient  days  was  dedicated  to  a 
moon  deity;  but  especially  because  Terah,  Abraham's 
father,  whom  we  learn  from  tradition  was  an  idolater, 
journeyed  to  Haran,  another  city  dedicated  to  the  moon- 
god,  where  he  remained  until  his  death.  It  is  further 
conjectured  that  in  this  late  period  the  ancient  name 
was  going  out  of  use,  because  of  the  way  Eupolemus 
speaks  of  the  city. 

The  Talmud,  however,  as  well  as  some  later  Arabian 


UR   OF   THE   CHALDEES  169 

writers,  regarded  Warka,  the  "Opex  of  the  Septuagint, 
as  the  city;  but  this  is  impossible,  as  Warka  is  Erech 
of  Genesis  10  :  10.  The  very  fact  that  the  late  Baby- 
lonian Jews  did  not  regard  Urumma  as  the  city,  although 
living  in  the  land,  ought  to  be  evidence  sufficient  to 
show  that  the  identification  of  the  biblical  Ur  with  that 
city  must  have  been  regarded  unfavorably  by  them. 

In  the  first  place,  Urumma,  the  name  of  the  city 
later  called  UrU,  was  the  seat  of  Nannar  worship,  and 
not  of  Sin;  the  one  deity  until  recently  considered 
Sumerian  and  the  other  Semitic,  or  more  precisely 
Aramaic*  ^SHESH-KI  is  rendered  Nannar  (IV  R.,  9, 
3a-17a),  and  also  Sin  (lY  R.,  1  :296;  5,  59a),  but  these 
equivalents  belong  to  the  late  period,  when  the  Sumerian 
gods  were  generally  identified  with  the  Semitic.  In  the 
early  period  we  have  no  proof  of  the  worship  of  Sin  at 
Urumma.  The  mere  fact  that  in  the  late  period  they 
were  identified  one  with  the  other  is,  therefore,  no 
proof  that  in  pre-Abrahamic  days  the  cults  had  very 
much  in  conomon,  beyond  the  fact  that  both  represented 
the  worship  of  moon-gods.  And  that  being  true,  we 
might  just  as  well  use  the  argument  that  Abram  came 
from  Babylon,  Sippar,  Cutha,  etc.,  because  the  chief  deity 
of  these  places  was  a  solar  deity,  and  at  Haran  the  fire-god 
Nusku  was  also  prominently  worshiped.  The  Talnmd 
tells  us  that  Terah  worshiped  no  less  than  twelve 
deities,  which  is  quite  reasonable,  and  which  makes  us 
feel,  knowing  a  little  about  those  early  religions,  that 

^  In  Semitic  Origins,  p.  199  ff.,  Barton  already  assumed  that 
there  is  a  Semitic  element  in  Nannar. 


170  AMURRU    HOME    OF   NORTHERN    SEMITES 

the  argument  has  little  in  it.  To  identify  Camarina 
with  Urumma  because  qamar  in  Arabic  means  '^  moon  " 
is  certainly  precarious. 

Another  difficulty  lies  in  the  designation  "  Ur  of 
the  Chaldeans. ''  The  geographical  term  Chaldea  or 
Kaldu J  written  by  the  Greeks  JCaXdaioi,  although  the 
origin  of  the  name  is  not  understood,  does  not  seem, 
especially  in  the  early  period,  to  include  Lower  Baby- 
lonia. The  word  is  probably  preserved,  apart  from 
Ur-Kasdim,  in  Arfa-Kesed  (Arphaxad,  perhaps  Vrfa)j 
and  in  Kesed,  one  of  the  tribes  descending  from  Nahor 
(Gen.  22  :  22).  However,  the  traditions,  as  preserved 
by  Berosus,  connect  the  Babylonians  with  the  Chaldeans. 

The  argument  advanced  in  favor  of  Urumma  as 
the  site  of  Ur,  because  of  the  Chaldean  district  south 
of  the  city,  has  little  or  nothing  in  its  favor.  That  region 
was  known  as  Btt-Yaktn,  being  inhabited  by  Chaldeans 
only  some  time  after  800  B.C.  Yaktn,  which  name 
implies  that  it  is  West  Semitic,  was  probably  borne  by 
a  man  who  was  known  as  a  Chaldean.  His  estate, 
i.e.,  BU-Yakin,  developed  into  a  community  of  suffi- 
cient importance  to  cause  Assyria  considerable  difficulty 
in  retaining  Babylonia,  with  which  it  was  allied,  in 
endeavoring  to  regain  independence. 

The  name  Abram,  as  already  mentioned  in  Part  I, 
has  at  last  been  found  in  the  cuneiform  literature  belong- 
ing to  the  patriarch's  age.  In  the  tablets  from  Tell 
Deilam  {i.e.,  Dilbat),  about  twenty  miles  south  of 
Babylon,  which  are  now  in  the  Berlin  Museum,  the  name 
is    written    Aha-rav^d,    Aham-ram    and    Aham-ramn} 

^  See  Ungnad,  Bei.  zur  Ass.,  VI,  5,  p.  60. 


UR   OF   THE    CHALDEES  171 

But  it  does  not  follow  necessarily  that  the  man  who  bore 
the  name  was  a  Babylonian  because  he  was  the  son  of 
Awil-Ishtar,  a  man  bearing  a  Babylonian  name.  In 
the  same  texts  there  are  many  examples  of  men  bearing 
West  Semitic  names  who  gave  their  children  Babylo- 
nian names;  and  the  reverse  is  also  found  in  these  as 
well  as  in  the  texts  of  the  other  periods.  This  resulted 
from  mixed  marriages.'  The  texts  show  that  many 
Western  Semites  lived  in  Dilbat  at  this  time.  But  what 
is  more  important  than  all  else  in  showing  that  the  name 
is  West  Semitic,  is  the  fact  that  the  element  ram  has  not 
been  f  oimd  to  exist  in  the  thousands  of  known  Babylo- 
nian names,  whereas  it  is  a  common  West  Semitic 
element. 

The  first  element  of  the  name  Ahrain  is  found 
in  all  the  Semitic  dialects,  but  the  second  element 
is  Western  Semitic.  In  the  Hebrew,  besides  Abram, 
and  Dn^nK,  DTHK,  DTD^O,  n^0*1,  OnO-r.^  and 
Dlin^  occur.  In  the  Phoenician  inscriptions  compare 
^r^D"^,  DID^.tD  and  D1^y3.  See  also  the  name  in  the 
Murashu  texts,  Addu-rammu  (B,  E.,  Vol.  X).  This 
element  ram  maybe  translated  "high,"  or  like  Elyon 
may  have  been  an  epithet  of  a  deity.  Moreover,  all 
the  ancient  traditions  show  that  Abram  was  an  Aramaean. 
The  genealogical  list  of  his  ancestors  in  Genesis  XI  shows 
that  they  were  Aramaeans,  certainly  not  Babylonians. 
The  names  of  his  immediate  family  are  Ai'am^ean. 
Nahor,  the  name  of  his  brother,  is  found  in  the  place 


1  See  Clay,  Light  on  the  Old  Testament  from  Babel,  p.  403. 


172   AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

name  Til  Nafiiri  of  the  ffarran  census.  Compare  also 
Johns,  Deeds  and  Documents,  420  :  3;  421  :  5;  and  the 
personal  names  Nafiardu  and  Najiiri.  Milkah,  as 
above,  should  be  connected  with  the  epithet  Malik. 
Jiscah  in  form  is  also  West  Semitic.  When  Abram 
was  commanded  to  leave  Haran,  he  is  told  to  go 
out  of  his  country  and  from  his  kindred.  When 
Eliezer  was  sent  for  Isaac^s  wife,  he  was  told  to  go  to 
Abraham's  country  and  to  his  kmdred,  in  the  city  of 
Nahor.  When  Jacob  fled  from  his  brother  he  went  to 
the  ancestral  home,  and  there  obtained  his  wife.  The 
names  Bethuel  and  Laban  are  West  Semitic.  In  later 
years  their  descendants  were  called  Aramaeans  (compare 
Genesis  25  :  20,  etc.).  In  short,  every  bit  of  evidence 
that  can  be  brought  to  bear  upon  the  subject  points  to 
the  fact  that  Abraham  was  not  a  Babylonian  by  descent, 
but  that  his  ancestral  home  was  in  Aram.  If  Ur  is 
located  in  Babylonia,  it  then  can  reasonably  be  asked 
why  he  should  have  lived  in  that  land. 

But,  notwithstanding  all  that  has  been  said  with 
reference  to  the  identification  of  Ur,  scholars  as  well  as 
the  ancients  seem  to  think  that  Terah  and  Abram  went 
to  Haran  from  a  city  some  distance  away,  and  that 
Chaldaea  in  this  connection  very  probably  means  Baby- 
lonia.^ The  Babylonian  Jews,  as  well  as  others  of  ancient 
times,  sought  for  the  city  in  that  land. 

In  identifying  a  city,  as  Ur,  there  are  a  number  of 
conditions  which  should  be  satisfactorily  met.     First, 

^  Kittel  argues  that  Kasdim  =  Kaldim  is  the  land  Kaldia  in 
Armenia. 


UR    OF   THE    CHALDEES  173 

the  city  should  be  in  Chaldsea,  preferably  not  in  Shumer, 
but  in  Babylonia.  Secondly,  it  should  be  explained  why 
its  location  was  lost  sight  of  in  the  late  pre-Christian 
centuries.  Thirdly,  it  ought  to  be  shown  why  an  Ara- 
maean or  Western  Semite  should  have  come  from  that 
city.      And  fourthly,  its  name  should  be   'llr  0*)^^). 

For  some  time  it  has  been  known  that  there  was  a 
town  in  the  vicinity  of  Sippar  called  Amurru,  which 
is  also  wi'itten  with  the  usual  ideogram  MAR-TU} 
This  can  properly  be  included  in  Lower  Mesopotamia 
or  Chaldaea. 

This  city,  as  far  as  the  writer  knows,  while  apparently 
a  city  of  some  prominence  in  the  time  of  the  First  dynasty 
of  Babylon,  is  not  mentioned  in  the  subsequent  periods. 

As  is  known,  a  large  proportion  of  the  tablets  belong- 
ing to  this  period  that  have  been  thus  far  published  come 
from  Sippar  a  and  its  vicinity.  In  these  tablets  it  has 
been  found  that  many  of  the  names  of  the  contracting 
parties,  witnesses  in  the  contracts,  officials,  and  devotees 
in  the  Temple  documents  are  West  Semitic.  Ranke, 
in  his  Personal  Names  of  the  ffammurahi  Dynasty,  p. 
33,  shows  that  these  people  were  called  "Children  of 
the  West  Land."  His  lists  of  names,  as  well  as  those 
of  Poebel,^  which  came  from  this  district,  namely, 
Sippar,  show  that  a  large  percentage  of  the  residents 
bore  West  Semitic  names.     Toffteen^  and  others  have 


^  Cf.  Meissner,  Altbab.  Priv.,  Nos.  42  and  72;  also  Ranke,  Baby- 
Ionian  Expedition,  Vol.  VI,  Part  I,  42a  :  1, 
'  Babijlonian  Expedition,  Vol.  VI,  part  2. 
^  See  Babyl.  and  Ass.  Geog.,  p.  30. 


174  AMURRU   HOME    OF   NORTHERN    SEMITES 

even  asserted  that  the  Amorites  of  the  West  came  from 
this  district  (see  above).  Concerning  the  way  these 
Western  Semites  came  to  live  in  this  locaUty,  we  can 
only  theorize.  But  knowing  the  later  custom  of  deport- 
mg  people,  and  knowing  also  the  account  of  Chedor- 
laomer's  campaign,  how  he  carried  away  Lot  and  the 
people  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  we  might  suggest  that 
they  or. their  ancestors  had  been  carried  into  exile  by 
some  previous  Elamite  or  Babylonian  conqueror. 

A  parallel  to  this  case  can  be  found  in  the  Business 
Documents  oj  the  MurashU  Sons  of  Nippur.  In  them, 
towns  called  Ashkelon,  Gaza,  Heshbon,  Bit-Tabalai 
are  located  in  the  vicinity  of  Nippur  in  the  fifth  century 
B.C.  In  other  words.  West  Semitic  names  are  intro- 
duced for  the  towns  occupied  by  the  Jews  in  captivity. 
In  these  tablets  also  a  great  many  Jewish  names  have 
been  found,  the  descendants  of  the  people  whom  Nebu- 
chadrezzar placed  there  in  exile.  The  name  of  the 
city  Barsip  above  Carchemish  of  Gudea's  time  doubt- 
less is  the  origin  of  the  Babylonian  Borsippa. 

And  finally,  having  shown  that  the  West  Semitic 
name  M AR-TU  =  Amurru  =  *T)N  ov'Vr,  and  that  this  is 
the  name  of  the  town  in  the  vicinity  of  Sippar,  we  have  the 
only  city  name  Ur  of  the  time  of  Abraham  that  is  loiown. 

Thus  all  the  requirements  that  can  reasonably  be 
laid  down  in  the  identification  of  the  city  have  been 
satisfied.  The  city  is  in  Chaldaca  or  Babylonia;  it 
thrived  at  the  time  that  the  patriarch  lived;  its  location 
was  later  lost  sight  of ;  it  was  inhabited  by  West  Semitic 
people,  and  its  name  is  the  same  as  is  written  in  the 
Old  Testament. 


II.    THE  NAME  JERUSALEM 


The  name  Jerusalem  has  had  in  the  past  many 
different  interpretations.  As  a  Hebrew  name,  formerly 
it  has  been  considered  to  mean  "  The  abode  of 
peace,"  "The  possession  of  peace,''  "Salem's  posses- 
sion," "A  foundation  of  peace,"  "Foundation  of  Sha- 
lem,"  etc.  The  discovery  of  the  Amarna  tablets,  which 
contain  the  writing  U-ru-sa-lim,  resembling  the  form 
Ursalimmu  of  the  inscription  of  Sennacherib,  threw 
new  light  on  the  subject.  Considered  in  connection 
with  the  Syriac,  which  is  Urishlem,  scholars  realized 
that  Jerusalem,  which  should  have  been  written  in 
cuneiform  something  like  YarHshalim,  was  a  disguised 
or  perhaps  an  incorrect  writing.  This  was  further 
corroborated  by  the  writing  D'7C^"1')K  in  the  Naba- 
t^an  inscriptions.  The  translation  "City  of  Salem," 
"City  of  Peace,"  or  "Place  of  Safety,"  then  became 
popular,  for  nearly  all  scholars  seem  to  have  concluded 
that  the  elements  of  the  name  are  a  compound  of  URU, 
which  in  Sumerian  means  "city,"  and  the  Semitic 
shalim,  "peace"  or  "safety."  For  example,  in  his 
editorial  notes  to  the  text  of  Isaiah,^  Haupt  accepts 
and  fully  discusses  the  name  from  this  point  of  view: 
The  dialectical  form  of  the  Sumerian  URU  is  ERI, 
which  passed   into  the   Hebrew  "l^J/,  "city."     The   u 

*  Polychrome  Bible,  p.  100. 

175 


176  AMURRU   HOME    OF   NORTHERN   SEMITES 

vowel  after  j  in  Urusalim,  he  says,  is  the  Sumerian 
vowel  of  prolongation.  The  i  in  the  Syriac,  Haupt 
further  states,  is  the  vowel  of  the  construct  state. 
Irushalim,  from  which  the  common  form  of  Jerusalem 
is  derived,  represents  the  dialectic  form  of  Uru.  The 
u  after  r  in  Irushalim  may  be  due  to  dissimilation. 
Pinches,  who  also  accepted  the  Sumerian  origin  of  the 
first  element,  appreciated  the  difficulty  in  the  genitival 
relation  of  the  two  elements  in  translating  "City  of 
Peace,"  and  suggested  the  meaning  "The  city  peace,'' 
making  it  a  counterpart  to  or  an  explanation  of  the 
name  Shalem,  "Peace,''  in  Genesis  14/ 

The  theory  that  the  first  element  is  from  the  Su- 
merian and  means  "city"  is  fraught  with  difficulties. 
In  the  first  place,  if  the  theory  is  correct  that  the  Hebraic 
or  Amoraic  *^^J^  is  derived  from  the  dialectical  form 
ERI,  going  back  to  the  pure  Sumerian  URU,  we  must 
assume  that  in  Urusalim  we  have  preserved  not  the  form 
from  which  y}^  is  supposed  to  have  been  derived, 
namely,  ERI,  but  the  original  Sumerian  URU;  or  the 
name  would  be  compounded  with  pure  Sumerian  and 
Semitic  elements.  Further,  inasmuch  as  we  have 
similar  formations  as  7r  Shemesh,  'Ir  Nafiash,  etc., 
belonging  to  the  early  period,  if  the  first  element  of  the 
name  URU  means  "city,"  does  it  not  seem  strange  that 
it  should  have  been  unrecognized  by  the  ancients  that 
the  element  had  that  meanuig?  Some  Sumerian  loan 
words  in  Hebrew  are  known,  but  these  are  traced  back 

*  Of.  The  Old  Testament  in  the  Light  of  the  Historical  Inscrip- 
tions, etc.,  p.  239  f. 


THE    NAME    OF   JEUUSALEM  177 

to  the  Sumerian  through  the  Babylonian.  If  URU  = 
ERI  =  Hr  (^*J^),  it  must  have  been  borrowed  from 
the  Sumerian  at  an  exceedingly  remote  age  by  the 
Amorites,  for  in  the  Amarna  letters  6lu  is  the  word 
used  for  "city."*  If  the  conjecture  concerning 
Mesheq  (see  p.  125)  is  correct,  it  would  show  that  the 
Babylonian  script  was  used  in  Damascus,  as  it  was  far- 
ther north  in  the  third  millennium  B.  C,  but  a  distinc- 
tion between  Babylonian  and  Sumerian  script  is  to  be 
made.  In  short,  the  theory  that  the  first  element  is 
Simierian  is  exceedingly  precarious. 

It  seems  to  me  that  exactly  the  reverse  is  the  fact, 
namely,  that  the  dialectical  ERI,  which  was  by  no 
means  in  common  use  in  Babylonia,  had  its  origin  in 
the  Western  Semitic  ^ir  (y^^)-  Whence  is  the  Baby- 
lonian dlUj  "city"?  It  surely  is  not  Sumerian,  but  was 
introduced  into  Babylonia  when  the  Western  Semites 
entered  the  land.  They  were  doubtless  tent  dwellers 
{josheb  'ohel);  and  dlu,  which  is  from  the  Arabic  ahl 
or  Hebrew  'ohel,  "tent,"  was  naturally  an  appropriate 
term  for  them.  Eri,  which  is  from  the  Hebrew  ^y, 
also  came  into  use  in  Babylonian. 

Two  other  explanations  of  this  name  appear  to  me 
to  be  more  reasonable.  In  the  first,  the  element  Uru 
is  considered  to  be  the  name  of  the  Amorite  deity; 
and  in  the  second,  the  name  of  the  Amorite  land.  This 
seems  perfectly  reasonable,  inasmuch  as  the  Amarna 
letters  show  that  the  name  belonged  to  the  age  prior  to 


1  Cf .  K.  B.,  V,  45  :  23  and  8  :  30. 
12 


178  AMURKU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

the  occupation  of  Israel,  when  the  Amorites  were  the 
doinmant  people  of  the  land. 

The  name  or  epithet  of  the  chief  deity,  as  we  have 
seen,  of  this  people  was  Vru,  and  a  reasonable  explana- 
tion of  "Jerusalem"  is  that  it  is  compounded  with  that 
name  and  shxilim,  meaning  perhaps  "  Vru  is  appeased. " 
The  second  element  shalim  is  Semitic,  as  above  stated, 
being  very  commonly  used  in  the  formation  of  Baby- 
lonian and  Assyrian  names.  It  is  also  found  in  West 
Semitic  personal  names,  cf.  D'?C^^^trN,  ti?^^^^^,  and 
D^tJ^IDl^  Compare  also  the  city  Shalem  of  Genesis 
14,  which  may  be  the  same  name  in  an  abbreviated 
form.  Compare  also  the  altar  name  Yahweh-Shalom 
of  the  Old  Testament.  For  such  a  theophorous 
name  as  Oru-shalim,  compare  the  two  altar  names 
Yahweh-jireh  and  Yahweh-nissi,  also  the  passage  in 
Jeremiah  36  :  16,  where  it  is  said  Jerusalem  shall  be 
called  "Jehovah  is  our  righteousness"  (l^plV  mn*). 
But  especially  compare  names  like  Yahni-el,  Jezreel, 
Joseph-el,  etc.,  also  the  large  number  of  place  names 
of  verbal  formation;  see  Glossary  in  Hommel's  South 
Arabic  Chrestomathy,  under  letter  y. 

This  gives  rise  to  the  question  whether  the  name 
was  originally  a  place  name,  or  whether  it  was  the 
name  of  an  individual,  which  was  afterward  applied 
to  the  estate,  manor  or  town.  As  an  original  place 
name  we  can  compare  the  names  quoted  above,  and 
also  such  Babylonian  names  as  NlN-IB-ashahshu-iqbi,^ 


'  See  Lidzbarski,  Handbuch,  and  Cooke,  North  Semitic  Inscrip- 
tions. 

^  B.  E.,  Vol.  IX,  51  :  5. 


THE    NAME    OF   JERUSALEM  179 

Ellil-limmassu,^  in  which  case  the  name  Uru-shalim, 
"  Uru  is  appeased, "  might  have  been  given  to  the  place 
on  its  bemg  rebuilt  after  an  enemy  had  destroyed  it, 
perhaps  when  a  foundation  sacrifice  had  been  offered, 
as  at  Jericho.^  However,  if  the  first  element  is  the  name 
of  the  deity,  Uru-shalim  appears  more  likely  to  be  the 
aame  of  an  individual,  doubtless  an  Amorite,  "  the  father 
of  the  city,"  who  perhaps  was  in  possession  of  the  hill 
known  as  Moriah,  or  more  correctly  Amoriah  (see  above 
in  Part  II).  As  is  known,  there  are  many  place 
names  among  the  ancient  Semitic  as  well  as  other  peoples 
that  were  once  personal  names. 

The  second  explanation  offered  is  that  the  first 
element  is  to  be  regarded  as  the  name  of  the  country, 
namely,  Amurru  =  Uru,  in  view  of  such  names  as  Aram- 
Zobah,  Aram-Maachah,^  etc.,  and  especially  if  Shalem 
is  the  original  name  of  the  city,  which  later  became  the 
capital  of  a  petty  principality,  as  the  Syrian  places 
quoted  were.  This  view  finds  support  in  the  Amarna 
letters,  for  the  land  or  country  of  the  city  Jerusalem 
is  several  times  referred  to.  That  is,  like  Aram(or 
S5a-ia)-Maachah,  or  Aram-Damascus,  we  would  have 
Vru-Shalem,  meaning  the  Amorite  Shalem.  If  these 
compounds  are  so  common  in  connection  with  Aram, 
why  should  not  the   same    be  foimd  to  be  the  case 

*  B.  E.,  Vol.  XV,  for  which  Meissner  suggests  the  reading  al 
Belnaplissu  (SHI-MAS-SU),  Gottingische  Gelehrte  Anzeigen,  1908, 
No.  2,  p.  143. 

2  a.  1  Kings  16  :  34. 

'  Cf.  So.  Arabic  Ma'in  Misrcin,  Hommel,  Aufsdtze  u.  Abhandl., 
p,6. 


180  AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

with  Oru  or  Amurru?  If  this  theory  is  correct,  then 
Shalem  of  Genesis  14  is  very  likely  to  be  identified  with 
UrU'Salim,  just  as  Maachah  was  known  as  Aram- 
Maachah.* 

The  writmg  "Jerusalem"  in  the  Hebrew,  which 
differs  so  greatly  from  the  Assyrian  Ursalimmu,  is 
not  very  difficult  to  explain.  The  loss  of  the  initial 
J<,  as  in  ll'^N,  El-tJr,  after  which  the  1  being  initial  passes 
into  *  in  Hebrew,  offers  no  difficulty.  The  use  of  the 
long  vowel  following  *1  must  then  be  regarded  as  a  join- 
ing vowel,  as  in  formations  like  HDP'^N  =  "I3t^K.  The 
Masoretic  pointing  is  like  fqattel,  which  in  Arabic  is 
juqattilu,  and  in  Assyrian  uqattil. 

*  Arpad  (13'IK)  in  Northern  Syria  was  in  the  early  period  an 
Amorite  city.  The  name  may  be  from  the  root  12^,  "to  extend," 
hence  nSIK  =  "terrace,"  cf.  D.  H.Miiller,  Inschr.  Ilofmus.;  but  it 
also  may  mean  either  tJr-Pad,  i.e.,  the  Amorite  13,  or  "  Uru  Sa 
requited,"  from  m£),  "to  redeem,  requite,"  cf.  •iiym£3,  SKm3,  and 
inna.  This  finds  support  in  the  cuneiform  inscriptions,  where  the 
name  is  written  ^^^Arpadda(u),  but  once  ^^'^Mar-jpa-da-ai,  Harper, 
Letters,  Pt.  VII,  No.  685,  Ov.  19.  In  the  inscription  of  Gudea,  a  city 
Uru-az,  belonging  to  this  same  district,  is  referred  to,  cf.  Thureau- 
Dangin,  V.  B.,  p.  21 .  Gudea  in  an  inscription  speaks  of  bringing  from 
Tidanu,  the  mountain  of  Amurru,  marble  for  ur-pad-da,  cf.  V.  B.  70, 
6  :  17,  but  the  meaning  of  the  passage  does  not  seem  to  be  under- 
stood. If  the  second  or  third  explanation  given  above  should 
prove  correct,  there  are  other  geographical  names  of  the  Amorite 
district,  the  etymology  of  which  is  uncertain,  that  should  be 
considered;  for  example,  Ur^billum,  etc.,  of  the  early  period. 


III.    THE  NAME  OF  SARGON,  KING 
OF  AKKAD 


The  reading  of  the  name  of  Sargon,  the  great  ruler 
of  early  Babylonian  history,  has  been  the  subject  of 
considerable  discussion  for  more  than  two  decades. 
The  name  SHAR-GA-NI-LUGAL-URU,  known  from 
inscriptions  found  at  Tello,  Nippur,  Bismya  and  else- 
where, was  identified  by  Sayce,  Hommel  and  Tiele  with 
Sargon  written  SHAR-GI-na,  followed  by  the  king's 
first  title  shar  dli.  Pinches  at  first  followed  Menant  by 
reading  lugal-lag,  but  later  adopted  shar  dli.  Oppert 
read  shar-imsi,  but,  with  Menant,  considered  the  ele- 
ment as  part  of  the  name,  i.e.,  Shar-ga-ni-shar-imsi. 
Oppert  later  read  the  name  Shar-ga-ni-shar-ali.  Hilprecht 
adopted  this  reading,  and  with  Sayce  and  others  con- 
sidered the  ruler  to  be  identical  with  Sargon,  explaining 
the  name  as  a  contraction  or  abbreviation  of  the  fuller 
form.* 

This  reading  Shargani-shar-dli  had  been  imtil  recently 
widely  accepted,  but  by  reason  of  the  fact  that  Thureau- 
Dangin^  discovered  that  URU  has  the  value  ri,  Dhorme^ 
read  the  characters  LUGAL  URU  =  shar-ri,  which  he 
considered  to  be  part  of  the  name.*     Some  scholars 

^  Cf.  Old  Babylonian  Inscriptions,  B.  E.,  I,  part  1,  p.  16  ff. 
U.  S.  A.,  p.  244,  X,  I,  2;  also  p.  240,  II. 
3  O.  L.  Z.,  1907,  p.  230. 

*Cf.  also  Poebel,  Z.  A.,  XXI,  p.  228,  and  Thureau-Dangin, 
0.  L.  Z.,  1908,  p.  314  f. 

181 


182  AMURRU    HOME    OF   NORTHERxN    SEMITES 

now  read  the  name  Shar-Gani-sharri,  some  of  whom 
considered  Gani  to  be  the  name  of  a  god,  by  reason  of 
the  identification  of  such  a  deity  by  Scheil.* 

A  recent  find  at  Susa  of  two  portions  of  a  large 
monoUth,  pubhshed  by  Gautier/  and  later  by  Scheil/ 
contains  a  cartouche  in  front  of  the  king's  image,  in 
which  his  name  is  written  Sharru-GI  sharru.  The 
name  is  read  by  these  scholars  "  Sharru-ukin,  the  king, " 
the  same  as  the  name  of  the  late  Assyrian  king,  known 
to  us  as  Sargon,  who  is  referred  to  in  the  Old  Testament; 
and,  as  mentioned  above,  has  been  regarded  hitherto 
as  the  same  as  the  supposed  abbreviated  form  of  Shar- 
gani-shar-dli,  but  to  be  read  Shar-Gani-sharri  or  Shargani- 
sharri, 

Scheil^  considered,  however,  Sharru-GI  as  another 
than  Shar-Gani-sharri.  Inasmuch  as  Sharru-ukm  in  a 
tablet  found  at  Tello^  bestows  upon  Nardm-Sin  the 
patesiship  of  Shirpurla,  Scheil  argued  that  they  were 
father  and  son;  while  Shar-Gani-sharri  he  considered 
to  be  another  king  of  Akkad  belonging  to  the  same 
djmasty,  but  who  followed  the  other  rulers.  This 
view  is  also  advanced  by  Halevy.^ 

Thureau-Dangin^  took  exception  to  this  conclusion, 
because  of  the  name  Sharru-uktn-ili,   ''Sargon   is  my 

>  Del.  en  Perse,  I,  p.  16,  u.  3. 

'  Rec.  de  trav.,  Vol.  XXVII,  pp.  176  f. 

'  Del.  en  Perse,  X,  p.  4. 

*  Del.  en  Perse,  X,  pp.  4  f. 

'  Cf.  Reciieil  de  Tablettes  Chaldeennes,  No.  83. 

•  Renue  Semitique,  1908,  pp.  377  ff. 
'  0.  L.  Z.,   1908,  pp.  313  f. 


THE    NAME    OF    SARGON  183 

god/'  found  on  an  undated  tablet  which  he  assigns  to 
the  time  of  Naram-Sin.  The  Sharru-GI  of  the  text 
published  by  Gautier  and  Scheil  he  placed  hi  the  Kish 
dynasty,  preceding  the  Akkad  dynasty,  andj  proposed 
that  we  have  the  following  order  of  rulers  of  Kish: 
Shar-ru-GIj  Manishtusu,  Uru-mu-ush;  and  of  Akkad, 
Shar-Gani-sharri  and  Naram-Sin. 

King*  also  considers  Sharru-GI  of  the  new  stele, 
published  by  Gautier  and  Scheil,  to  be  a  still  earlier 
king  of  Kish,  using  two  texts  to  prove  his  point.  In 
one,  however,  which  was  published  by  Scheil,^  the  only 
trace  of  the  name  is  the  last  character  GI{^)  at  the 
end  of  the  first  line;  which  reading  the  author  acknowl- 
edges to  be  doubtful.  The  other  inscription  quoted 
is  also  of  a  king  of  Kish  found  at  Tello,  of  which  the  only 
part  of  the  name  that  is  preserved  is  the  first  sign, 
namely,  Sharru.  King,  therefore,  proposes  the  reading 
Sharru-GI  (i.e.,  a  deity  GI),  instead  of  Sharru-Unu, 
and  considers  that  this  king  of  Kish  is  not  to  be  identi- 
fied with  Shar-Gani-sharri,  the  father  of  Naram-Sin, 
king  of  Akkad.  In  order  to  explain  why  in  the  late 
Assyrian  and  Babylonian  tradition  Sargon  was  called 
king  of  Agade  or  Akkad,  and  the  father  of  Naram- 
Sin,  he  says,  "It  is  clear,  therefore,  that  the  name  of 
Sargon,  king  of  Kish,  has  been  borrowed  for  the  king  of 
Akkad,  whose  real  name,  Shar-Gani-sharri,  has  dis- 
appeared. " 

In    short    Scheil's    order    is:    Sharru-ukin,    king   of 

1  Proceedings  of  the  Society  of  Biblical  Archceology,  XXX,  p.  240. 
^  Del.  en  Perse,  I,  p.  4. 


184  AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

Akkad,  is  followed  by  Nardm-Sin,  his  son,  and  later  by 
a  certain  Shar-gani-sharri.  Thureau-Dangin  and  King 
make  Shami-GI  a  king  of  Kish,  and  Shar-Gani-sharri, 
followed  by  his  son  Nardm-Sin,  kings  of  Akkad. 

It  is  not  improbable  that  there  was  another  king 
of  this  era  by  the  name  of  Sargon,  who  belonged  to  the 
dynasty  of  Kish,  but  it  must  be  recognized  that  the 
theory  advanced  is  exceedingly  precarious,  because 
concerning  the  one  inscription  it  should  be  said  that 
other  rulers'  names  begin  with  LUGAL;  and  concern- 
ing the  other  inscription,  the  GI  is  so  uncertain  that 
Scheil,  although  when  he  originally  published  the 
translation  of  the  text^  read  (T^(?),  later^^  he  did  not 
even  suggest  that  much.  Until,  therefore,  more  evi- 
dence is  forthcoming  that  there  was  a  Sharru-GI  of  the 
Kish  dynasty,  the  theory  that  the  so-called  Sharri-Gani- 
sharri,  the  father  of  Naram-Sin,  was  credited  with  the 
achievements  of  the  still  greater  predecessor,  and  that 
the  confusion  is  to  be  accounted  for  because  both  were 
great  conquerors  of  the  same  age,  and  that  both  belonged 
to  the  Semitic  wave  of  domination  and  restored  the 
Sippar  temple,  and  because  their  names  are  not  dis- 
similar (with  which  the  writer  differs,  see  below), 
must  for  the  present  be  considered  as  rather  question- 
able. 

The  names  used  by  Dhorme'  to  prove  that  URU 
m  these  names  following  LUGAL  is  to  be  read  ri  are 


*  Del.  en  Perse,  II,  p.  4,  note. 

'  Saison  de  Fmdlles  h  Sippar,  p.  96. 

3  O.  L.  Z.,  1907,  p.  230. 


THE   NAME    OF   SARGON  185 

Bi-in-ga-ni'Shar-ri  (otherwise  known  as  Bingani-shar- 
dli),  U-hi-in-shar-ri  from  the  Manishtusu  Obelisk,  and 
I-skir-shdr-ri}  The  latter  name  is  not  to  be  regarded 
as  a  parallel  writing,  inasmuch  as  the  si^  used  is 
shoTj  sdr.  In  the  other  names,  as  well  as  every  occur- 
rence of  the  name  Shargani-LUGAL-URUj  the  charac- 
ter in  question  is  LUGAL. 

Some  of  those  who  have  accepted  this  reading  see 
in  the  second  element  the  name  of  a  god  Gani,  by  reason 
of  the  names  Ga-ni-i-li  and  Ilu-Ga-ni  which  are  found  on 
the  Manishtusu  Obelisk.  King^  compares  Sharru-GI 
sharru  with  Shar-Gani-sharri.  He  says  there  is  no 
proof  for  the  reading  ukin  or  kenu  for  GI  at  the  time 
of  the  kingdom  of  Kish,  and  suggests  that  GI  as  well  as 
Gani  may  be  a  deity.  This  name  would  then  mean 
"  The  king  is  GL ''  If  sharri  is  part  of  the  name,  then  it 
cannot  be  the  supposed  "  Sargon,  king  of  Kish, "  since  the 
comparison  is  not  possible.  But  how  can  the  new  read- 
ings of  the  names  Shar-Gani-sharri  and  Bin-Gani-sharri 
be  translated?  Dhorme^  changes  U-hi-in-shar {LUGAL)- 
ri{URU)  into  Uhil-sharri,  and  traiislates  "Mon  roi  a 
apporte.'^  Shargani-shar-URU  he  reads  Shir-ga-ni- 
shar-rij  and  translates  "Sois  juste,  6  Gani,  mon  roi." 
Bingani-shar-URU  he  changes  to  Bi-il-ga-nishar-ri, 
and  translates  "Apporte,  6  Gani,  mon  roi.'' 

Such  formations  and  names,  with  similar  meanings, 
are,  however,  unknown  in  Babylonian  nomenclature. 

»  Cf.  Rec.  de  Tab.  Chal,  127,  Rev.  IV,  3. 
2  P.  S.  B.  A.,  1908,  p.  242. 
«  Jhid.y  p.  231. 


186  AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

Not  only  is  the  formation  and  meaning  peculiar,  but 
where  in  this  period,  or  in  any  other,  does  the  charac- 
ter LUGAL  regularly  have  a  phonetic  complement  n 
or  ru?  Or,  if  it  is  considered  to  be  a  phonogram,  where 
in  this  age  or  in  any  other  does  LUGAL  regularly  have 
the  phonetic  value  shar.  When  the  scribe  in  the 
Manishtusu  Obelisk  wrote  the  name  Sargon  phonetic- 
ally we  find  Shdr-ni-GI;  cf.  also  Shdr-ru-i-li,  Shdr-ru- 
dUri,  etc.  In  the  brick  inscription  of  Naram-Sin, 
published  by  Scheil,^  Shdr-ru  is  twice  written.^  This 
must  be  regarded  not  only  as  a  serious  objection  to 
the  reading,  but  proof  that  it  is  incorrect;  for  it 
could  not  be  inferred  that  on  such  monuments  as  the 
Obelisk  or  the  votive  objects  of  Sargon,  found  at  Nippur 
and  Tello,  or  in  the  date  formulas,  or  in  the  so-called 
name  Bin-Gani-sharri,  etc.,  we  would  expect  such 
graphical  expediencies  or,  as  the  Germans  say,  "Spie- 
lereien."^    For  these  and  other  reasons  we  are,  there- 


*Del  en  Perse,  II,  PI.  13  : 1. 

2  Cf.  also  Shdr-la-ak,  king  of  KutH^  Vor.  Bib.,  I,  p.  225;  Shdr-ri- 
ish-ta-qal,  Rev.  Ass.,  PI.  VIII,  1897;  as  well  as  all  the  names  com- 
pounded with  Shdr-rum  in  Ranke,  Personal  Names. 

^  What  has  been  said  concerning  LUGAL  also  applies  to  the 
Hammurabi  Code,  e.g.,  I-lu  LUGAL  URU,  III  :  16,  can  scarcely 
be  translated  "god  of  kings"  or  "god  of  king."  The  original 
translation,  "the  divine  city  king, "  seems  to  be  more  reasonable,  but 
perhaps  not  final.  There  is  one  passage,  however,  that  seems  to 
support  the  reading  in  the  Hammurabi  period.  Dr.  Poebel  has  called 
attention  to  it  (cf.  Z.  A.,  XXI,  p.  228).  In  King's  Letters,  Vol.  II. 
No.  58,  Col.  II  :  37,  LUGAL  LUGAL  E-NE-IR  is  found.  In  text 
No.  57  of  the  same  volume  the  Semitic  translation  of  this  text 
reads  :  sharru  in  LUGAL-URU. 


THE    NAME    OF   SARGON  187 

fore,  compelled  to  return  to  the  reading  LUGAL  URU, 
instead  of  shar-ri  or  sharri{-ri) ;  and  the  question  arises 
whether  the  combination  of  characters  be  read  Shargani- 
shar-dli,  shargani  shar  ali,  or  Shar-gani  LUGAL  URU? 
In  the  light  of  what  follows,  if  LUGAL  URU  is 
considered  to  be  a  title,  it  seems  to  me  there  is  no  diffi- 
culty whatever  in  identifying  the  traditional  Sharru- 
kenu  with  the  father  of  Naram-Sin,  hitherto  known 
as  Shar-ga-ni-shar-dli  and  Shar-Gani-sharri;  and  at  the 
same  time  all  other  difficulties  vanish.  In  other 
words,  the  Sharru-GI  of  the  stele  published  by  Gautier 
and  Scheil  is  the  same  ruler  who  is  mentioned  as  bestow- 
ing the  patesiship  of  Tello  upon  Naram-Sin  in  the  texts 
published  by  Thureau-Dangin,  and  was  the  father  of 
Naram-Sin. 

The  well-known  tradition  of  Sargon  in  the  chronicles 
and  omen  texts,  as  well  as  in  the  cylinder  of  Nabonidus, 
in  which  his  name  is  written  Sharru-Mnu,  show  us: 
1,  that  he  was  not  of  royal  descent,  having  been  reared 
by  Akki  the  irrigator;^  2,  that  he  was  followed  by 
Naram-Sin,  who  was  his  son;  3,  that  he  was  king  of 
Akkad;  4,  that  he  conquered  Amurru;  5,  and  that  he 
conquered  Elam. 

1.  The  inscription  of  Shargani  shar  URU,  as  well 
as  the  dating  of  tablets  in  his  reign,  show  that  he  does 
not  claim  royal  ancestry,  being  the  son  of  a  commoner, 
Dati-Ellil;  2,  that  Naram-Sin  was  king  of  this  dynasty, 

*  A-bi  ul  i-di  of  the  legend  does  not  mean  that  he  did  not  know 
his  father's  name,  but  like  the  personal  name  refers  to  a  posthumous 
■child. 


188   AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

and  m  all  probability  the  son  and  successor  of  Shargani, 
especially  by  reason  of  the  fact  that  Dr.  Haynes  found 
that  the  pavement  laid  in  the  temple  at  Nippur  by 
Naram-Sin  consisted  of  bricks  intermingled  with  those 
of  Shargani,  as  well  as  the  fact  that  both  by  their  inscrip- 
tions tell  us  that  they  were  devotees  of  the  Shamash 
temple  at  Sippar,  both  had  the  same  scribe,  namely, 
Lugal-usum-gal,  patesi  of  Shirpurla,  and  because  of  the 
hullce,  referred  to  below,  which  were  found  at  Tello; 
3,  that  he  also  was  king  of  Akkad;  4,  that  he  conquered 
Amurru]^  5,  and  that  he  conquered  Elam.^ 

The  recently  published  inscription  of  Shar-ni-GI 
by  ScheiP  shows  that  he  too  ruled  over  Shirpurla,  and 
that  he  made  Naram-Sin  patesi  of  that  city.  Unless 
it  is  assumed,  with  King,  that  this  is  another  Sargon — 
but  then  we  must  add,  who  was  succeeded  by  another 
Naram-Sin,  and  that  both  ruled  Shirpurla,  as  did  Shar- 
gani and  his  son — we  must  recognize  a  most  peculiar 
combination  of  coincidences. 

At  Bismya,  Banks  found  brick-stamps  of  "Naram- 
Sin,  builder  of  the  Temple  of  Nana,''  and  also  hullce 
which  contained  the  seal  impression  of  Shargani  sJmr 
URU.  The  brick-stamps  are  of  the  same  general 
character  as  those  found  at  Nippur  belonging  to  Naram- 
Sin.  It  seems  to  me  that  inasmuch  as  we  know  that 
Sharru-GI  appointed  Naram-Sin  as  patesi  of  Shirpurla, 
and  that  the  bullae  of  SJmrgani  shar  URU,  addressed  to 


>  Cf.  Thureau-Dangin,  V.  B.,  I,  p.  225. 

2  Cf.  ibid.,  p.  225. 

»  Cf.  Del.  en  Perse,  X,  pp.  4  f. 


THE    NAME    OF    SARGON 


189 


Naram-Sin,  have  been  found  there,  and  having  no  other 
trace  of  a  ruler  Naram-Sin,  we  must  conclude  that  the 
phonetic  writing  Shar-ga-ni  represents  the  name  written 
ideographically  Sharru-kenu{GI) ,  and  that  they  belong 
to  the  same  person. 

Scholars  are  practically  all  agreed  that  Sargon  was 
a  Semite.     His  inscriptions,  as  well  as  others  belonging 
to  the  dynasty,  point  to  the  fact  that  it  was  Semitic. 
If  a  god  Gani  is  to  be  recognized  in  his  name,  and  that 
of  his  grandson,  "the  element"  Shar  and  Bin  would 
offer   no    difficulty.     But   if   the    supposed   god   Gani 
does   not   exist  in  these  names,  Shargdn  might   be   a 
formation  on  dn  from  a  root  :intr,  with  which,  as  has 
been  done,  we  can  compare  the  name  of  the  early  Hebrew 
patriarch    Serug    (written     with     tT),    but    especially 
with  the  name  of  the  city  Sarugi  in  the  garran  Census 
(Johns,  Deeds  and  Documents,  p.  72).     The  scribes,  who 
wrote  the   name   in  cuneiform,  could  write  it  in  two 
ways;  that  is,  phonetically  as  they  heard  it,  namely, 
Shar-ga-ni,  and   ideographically,    by    using    ideograms 
which  represent  approximately  at  least  the  pronuncia- 
tion of  the  name,  irrespective  of  the  meaning,  namely, 
Shar(ru)  {i.e.,  LUGAL)  and  GI  =  kenu;  and  yet  perhaps 
not  without    consideration    of    the    meaning,   namely, 
"the   true   king,''   especially  if   the   scribes   had   any 
desire  of  pleasing  their  sovereign  who  was  a  usurper. 
In  the  Assyrian  period,  the  king  who  adopted  this  name 
of    the   illustrious  ruler   of    early   Babylonian  history 
doubtless  had  in  mind  the   meaning  which   the   ideo- 
graphic writing  conveyed,  namely,  "the  true"  or  ''legiti- 
mate king." 


190  AMURRU   HOME    OF   NORTHERN    SEMITES 

There  remains  to  be  considered  the  usual  LUGAL 
URU  which  follows  Shargani,  Bingani,  and  also  the 
name  Uhin  of  the  Manishtusu  Obelisk.  The  original 
explanation  that  it  was  a  title,  "city  king/'  does  not 
seem  unreasonable,  and  much  can  be  said  in  its  favor. 
Even  if  LUGAL  URU  is  to  be  explained  otherwise  in 
the  Sargonic  period,  it  is  not  unlikely  that  the  title  in 
some  periods  means  "king  of  the  city." 

In  the  light  of  these  investigations,  however,  and  in 
connection  with  the  reading  for  this  sign  when  it  refers 
to  the  deity  of  the  West-land,  as  we  have  seen  above, 
I  would  like  to  propose  another  possible  explanation, 
namely,  that  Uru  here  means  the  country,  and  that  the 
name  and  title  Shargani  shar  Uru  means  "Sargon, 
king  of  t)ri. "  By  this  title  was  recognized  the  "  suzer- 
ainty of  Vri/'  which  in  the  Sumerian  mscriptions 
wa^  written  KI-BUR-BUR  =  Ki-Vri,  "Land  Uru,^' 
and  later  in  Babylonia,  Akkad  or  MAR-TU  (see  below). 
This  land  Uri  extended  from  what  was  known  as  Engi 
(Shumer)  to  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean  (see  above 
in  Part  II).  The  fact  does  not  seem  to  be  ordinarily 
appreciated  that  some  of  the  earliest  rulers  known  by 
their  records  show  that  they  extended  their  conquests 
over  this  part  of  Western  Asia.  In  fact  in  the  few 
inscriptions  that  have  come  down  to  us  tliis  stands 
out  prominently.  These  expeditions  were  not  raids 
for  the  purpose  of  plundering,  but  were  for  conquest, 
and  were  equal  in  extent,  in  the  way  of  holding  the 
lands  in  subjection,  with  those  of  the  later  periods.  The 
omen  texts,  which  had  been  re-edited  in  the  late  period, 


THE    NAME    OF   SARGON  191 

credit  Sargon  with  the  title  shar  kibrat  arha'im,  i.e., 
"king  of  the  four  quarters/'^  although  there  is  no 
verification  of  this  fact  in  the  inscriptions  of  Sargon 
thus  far  published.     How  is  this  to  be  explained? 

The  inscriptions  thus  far  known  doubtless  belong 
to  the  early  part  of  his  reign  when  he  had  conquered 
only  MARTU,  which  gave  him  the  title  "king  of  tfri" 
{shar  Vri);  but  in  later  years,  by  reason  of  certain 
additional  conquests,  he  was  able  to  assume  the  title 
which  embraced  a  quasi-worldwide  dominion;  or  he 
may  have  preferred  the  less  pretentious  title,  even 
after  he  had  accomplished  this  work.  This  can  be 
inferred  from  what  is  written  in  the  omen  texts  found 
in  Ashurbanipal's  library,  which  mention  Elam  in  the 
East  and  Subartu  in  the  North,  as  well  as  other 
important  lands,  as  having  been  invaded.  The  chron- 
icles of  early  kings^  referring  to  Sargon  say:  "After- 
wards in  his  old  age  all  the  lands  revolted  against  him 
.  .  .  .  afterwards  he  attacked  the  land  Subartu 
in  his  might,"  etc.  They  also  state :^  "Sargon,  who 
marched  against  the  country  of  the  West,  and  conquered 
the  country  of  the  West,  his  hand  subdued  the  [four] 
quarters."  We  have  a  parallel  case  in  the  reign  of 
Dungi,  where  in  the  later  years  of  his  rule  he  conquered 
the  ''four  quarters"  and  handed  down  to  his  successor 
the  title,  exactly  as  did  Sargon  (see  below). 

This  title,  namely,   "King  of  the  four   quarters," 

1  Cf.  King,  Chronicles,  II,  p.  27. 

2  Cf.  King,  Chronicles,  II,  p.  6. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  27. 


192   AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERX    SEMITES 

Naram-Sin  inherited.  In  other  words,  the  title  of 
Naram-Sin,  as  well  as  that  of  Sargon  in  the  omen  text^ 
i.e.  J  shar  kihrat  arba'im,  was  a  terminus  technicus,  imply- 
ing virtually  a  sovereignty  which  extended  north,  east, 
south  and  west  of  the  center  of  the  empire,  which  in  the 
case  of  Sargon  was  Akkad  (A-GA-DE),  i.e.,  the  city 
Akkad  as  the  capital.  The  omen  texts  show  that  the 
four  quarters  referred  to  were  Amurru,  Subartu,  Elam 
and  Accad  (which  doubtless  included  Engi). 

Bingani,  the  son  of  Naram-Sin,  did  not,  as  far  as  we 
know,  enjoy  the  title  "King  of  the  four  quarters." 
One  or  more  of  the  countries  may  in  his  day  have 
regained  independence.  The  title  which  he  alone  could 
boast  of  was  "  King  of  Vri. "  Lugal-zaggisi  and  Enshag- 
kushanna  used  the  title  lugal  kalamma,  "king  of  the 
world, "  the  "  dominion  which  extended  from  the  lower 
sea  of  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates  {i.e.,  the  Persian  Gulf) 
as  far  as  the  upper  sea"  {i.e.,  the  Mediterranean). 

Ur-Engur  only  used  the  title  "King  of  Engi  and 
Ori."  In  other  words  he  was  king  over  Shumer,  i.e., 
Southern  Babylonia,  and  also  the  Ori  region,  which 
extended  from  Shumer  to  the  Mediterranean  sea.  His 
numerous  references  to  Amurru  and  its  products  alone 
would  imply  that  he  reigned  in  that  land.  Dungi 
used  the  same  title;  but  in  several  of  his  inscriptions 
he  called  liimself  lugal  an-ub-da  tah-tab-ba,  which  is 
the  Sumerian  for  shar  kibrat  arbaim,  "  king  of  the  four 
quarters."  In  the  dates  of  the  latter  half  of  his  reign 
we  learn  that  he  made  notable  conquests.  These  doubt- 
less enabled  him  to  use  the  all  important  and  compre- 


THE    NAME    OF    SARGON  193 

hensive  title.  This  was  enjoyed  also  by  his  successors, 
Amar-Sin,  Gimil-Sin,  and  Ihi-Sin,  the  other  three  kings 
of  the  Ur  dynasty.  The  kings  of  the  Isin  dynasty,  as  I 
have  shown/  were  in  all  probability  foreigners  who 
overthrew  the  preceding  dynasty;  and  in  doing  so 
evidently  lost  control  of  Elam,  or  some  important 
territory,  for  Libit-Ishtar,  Ishme-Dagan,  Ur-NINIB, 
Bur-Sin  and  Sin-mdgir,  as  well  as  Gungunu  and  Sin- 
iddinam,  only  used  the  title  "King  of  Engi  and  (7n." 
Eri-Aku  and  Rim-Aku  (Sin)  also  used  this  title.  Kudur- 
Mahug,  their  father,  in  several  inscriptions  is  known 
as  Adda  Emuthal,  "  Suzerain  of  Emutbal, "  but  in  another 
he  called  himself  also  Adda  Martu,  "Suzerain  of  Vri.'' 
JJammurabi,  after  his  overthrow  of  Rim-Aku,  as  well 
as  of  Elam,  became  the  possessor  of  this  title,  namely, 
"Suzerain  of  Vri.''  We  find  him  using  the  title  "King 
of  Engi  and  VrV  and  "King  of  the  four  quarters" 
in  the  same  inscription.  In  this  connection  should  be 
mentioned  the  statue  of  JJammurabi  found  at  Diarbekir 
{i.e.,  in  Urartu),  which  contains  the  single  title  "King 
of  [7n"  (MAR-TU),  the  same  as  used  by  Sargon.  We 
recognize,  therefore,  three  general  titles  besides  those 
used  in  connection  with  the  individual  state  or  city 
kingdom,  namely,  shar  t)ri,  "King  of  Vri,"  lugal 
Ki-Engi  Ki-Vri,  "King  of  Shumer  and  Akkad"  {i.e., 
Engi  and  Vri),  and  shar  kihrat  arhaHm  (which  is  the 
same  as  the  Sumerian  an-uh-da  tah-tab-ha),  and  lugal 
kalamma. 

^  Cf.  Proceedings  of  the  American  Oriental  Society;  cf.  also  Ranke, 
O.  L.  Z.,  Vol.  28,  p.  135. 
13 


194  AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

Some  time  after  the  foregoing  was  written  and  in 
shape  for  the  printer,  I  found  (February  7,  1909)  in 
the  Library  Collection  of  Mr.  J.  Pierpont  Morgan,  of 
New  York  City,  a  fragment  of  a  tablet  of  Sargon,  which 
had  just  been  shipped  from  England  by  Dr.  C.  H.  W. 
Johns.     Following  is  the  transHteration  of  the  fragment : 

A-na-ku  Sha-ru-ki-in 

na-ra-am  ^Ishtar 

mu-te-li-ik 

ki-ib-ra-a-at 

ir-hi-ti-in 

.     .     mi{T)-tu-ru-ru 


This  perhaps  is  to  be  translated  as  follows :  "  I  Sargon 
beloved  of  Ishtar  a  ruler(?)  of  the  four  quarters"  {i.e., 

the  kingdom  of  the  four   quarters) " 

The  special  value  of  this  fragment  is  the  confir- 
mation of  the  view  above  advanced  in  connection  with 
the  name  and  titles  of  Sargon.  Naturally,  it  is  possible 
to  assume  that  it  was  issued  by  another  Sargon,  who  was 
"king  of  the  four  quarters,"  but,  as  mentioned  above, 
the  existence  of  such  must  first  be  proved.  The  frag- 
ment shows  that  the  full  name  of  the  king  was  SJmrukin; 
and  further,  that  in  this  tablet  he  no  longer  calls  himself 
"khig  of  VrV'  (shar  Vru),  but  speaks  of  his  kingdom 
as  the  kihrat  irbitin,^  wliich  substantiates  the  view  that 
after  he  had  conquered  the  territory  embraced  in  the 
title  "King  of  the  four  quarters,"  he  was  in  a  position 
to  assume  it,  and  to  hand  on  to  his  son  Naram-Sin. 


^  Nunnation  instead  of  mimmation. 


IV.    THE  NAME  NINIB 


In  publishing  the  Archives  of  the  Murashtl  Sons  of 
Nippur,  in  1904,  the  writer  found  a  large  number  of 
documents  which  contained  short  reference  notes,  called 
in  legal  parlance  "endorsements."  These  reference 
notes  were  scratched  or  written  with  ink  on  the  tablet 
in  the  Aramaic  language  for  the  benefit  of  the  archive 
keeper/  On  several  of  these  tablets  were  found  names 
which  were  compounded  with  the  name  of  the  deity 
NIN-IB,  e.g.,  NINIB-iddina.  But  instead  of  finding 
anything  like  what  had  been  proposed,  namely,  Adar, 
Nindar,  Ninrag,  Nin-Urash  and  Nisroch,  there  was 
written  in  each  instance  ^ti^1-3^^.  Before  finding  an 
additional  tablet  which  contained  the  Ai^amaic  equiv- 
alent, there  seemed  to  be  some  doubt  whether  the 
middle  character  should  be  read  1  or  ),  although 
preference  was  given  to  the  latter.  Another  example, 
however,  was  found  which  confirmed  the  preferred 
reading. 

The  result  of  the  discovery  of  this  Aramaic 
equivalent,  instead  of  solving  the  problem,  seemed  to 
make  the  obscurity  which  surrounded  the  pronunciation 

^  See  Clay,  Babylonian  Expedition,  Vol.  X,  pp.  5  f . ;  Light  on  the 
Old  Testament  from  Babel,  p.  394,  and  "Aramaic  Endorsements  on 
the  Documents  of  the  Murashii  Sons,"  Harper  Memorial  Volume, 
I,  pp.  289  f.,  and  "The  Origin  and  Real  Name  of  NIN-IB,  "  J.  A, 
O.  S.,  1907. 

195 


196   AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

still  denser.  The  writer  at  the  same  time  had  several 
theories  in  mind  with  reference  to  the  vocalization  and 
meaning  of  the  characters,  but  none  were  published,  as 
they  did  not  seem  sufficiently  satisfactory.  Some  of 
these,  however,  have  been  published  by  others.^ 

^  The  interesting  collection  of  views  on  the  .\ramaic  equiva- 
lent and  the  interpretations  of  it  which  follow  shows  how  diver- 
sified has  been  the  understanding  of  scholars.  Professor  Hilprecht, 
in  his  editorial  preface  to  my  Murashu  texts  (i.e.,  B.  E.,  Vol.  X), 
as  well  as  in  an  article  in  The  Sunday  School  Times,  September  25, 
1904,  took  exception  to  my  reading  and  read  two  characters  differ- 
ently, i.e.,  nu^'^JX.  In  explaining  the  name  he  proposed  com- 
parison with  NIN-SHAH,  "Lord  of  the  Boar"  =  the  Syriac 
Jliy"lKJ,  and  regarded  it  identical  with  the  biblical  Nisroch,  in  whose 
temple  at  Nineveh  Sennacherib  worshiped.  The  Syriac  form, 
however,  is  nKJ  (cf.  Jastrow,  Rel.  Bab.  iind  Ass.,  Vol.  I,  p.  451), 
which  of  course  makes  the  comparison  impossible.  Further, 
the  final  character  of  the  Aramaic  of  NIN-IB  is  not  n  but  n» 
as  I  had  maintained,  and  which  has  since  been  proved  correct.  Tlie 
reading  of  "^  instead  of  1  inspired  a  series  of  other  readings  which 
follow.  Professor  Zimmern,  as  quoted  by  Professor  Hilprecht  in  TJie 
Sunday  School  Times  (September  25,  1904),  read  hlprsht  =  btl 
pirishti,  "Lord  of  decision."  Professor  Prince,  in  the  Journal 
of  Biblical  Literature  (vol.  1905,  p.  55),  followed  in  reading  Enu 
reshtu,  "The  chief  lord."  Dr.  Pinches,  about  the  same  time,  in 
the  Journal  of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society  (January,  1905),  read  En- 
resheth  =  Enu  reshtu,  "The  primaeval  lord."  Professor  Johns, 
Expository  Times  (December,  1904),  p.  141,  read  Urashtu,  and  on 
p.  141,  ibid.,  Arashtu.  Professor  Sayce,  in  the  same  journal  (Decem- 
ber, 1904),  regarded  it  as  equivalent  to  tlie  Assyrian  In-arishti, 
"Lord  of  the  mitre,"  the  Sumorian  for  Nin-Urash.  In  the  Revue 
Scmitique  (1905,  p.  93),  Professor  Halevy  offered  the  reading 
En  napishti,  "Lord  of  life,"  or  preferably  En-nawashti  =  En- 
nammnshti,  "seigneur  de  tout  ce  qui  est  dou6  de  vie  de  mouvement, 
de  toute  creature  anim6e."  Later  (cf.  ibid.,  p.  180),  the  same 
scholar  offered   two  other  explanations:  en-rislmti,    "seigneur  de 


THE   NAME   NIN-IB  197 

Besides  Jensen  and  Halevy,  of  those  who  have  pub- 
lished their  views,  Lidzbarski  is  the  only  scholar  who 
accepted  my  reading.^  In  an  article  on  "  The  Origin  and 
Real  Name  of  NIN-IB/'  which  appeared  in  the  Trans- 
actions of  the  American  Oriental  Society,  Vol.  XXVIII, 
p.  135,  the  writer,  holding  that  the  middle  character 
is  unmistakably  1,  not  1,  proposed  the  formula  HJi^l^K  = 
En-mashtu  =  En-martu  =  Bdal-Amurru  (see  below). 
Since  this  publication  appeared,  Hrozny^  read  the  char- 
acters In-nummashtu  =  nammashshu  from  numushda. 

In  the  early  spring  of  last  year  a  potsherd  from 
Nippur,  which  had  been  classified  as  a  fragment  of  a 
Hebrew  bowl,  proved  in  the  skillful  hands  of  my  col- 
league, Professor  Montgomery,  to  be  an  ostracon,  on 
which  the  name  is  written  in  Aramaic  no  less  than  five 
times.^  It  put  the  reading  of  the  Aramaic  beyond  cavil, 
showing  that  my  own  from  the  very  first  was  correct. 

The  explanation  that  I  have  advanced,  namely,  that 
the  Aramaic  ilSJ^I^i^  for  NIN-IB  was  a  reproduction 
of  the  Sumerian  EN-MAR-TU,  the  lord  par  excellence 
of  the  West-land,  does  not  seem  to  me  to  have  been 

I'all^gresse, "  and  en-arishti,  "seigneur  du  vetement  princier  nomme 
arishtu."  Professor  Jensen  {Gilgamesh  Epos,  p.  87)  read  and  inter- 
preted the  character  enwusht  =  namushtu  =  namurtu,  with  which 
he  compared  the  biblical  Nimrod.  Three  other  explanations  were 
sent  me  in  private  communications:  Irrishtu,  the  feminine  of  Irri- 
shu,  "farmer";  en  erishti,  "Lord  of  decision,"  and  an  identification 
with  the  Persian  word  for  the  planet  Saturn,  nivishti  livAd,  "the 
prescience  of  god,"  or  nuwashtan,  "to  go  far  away." 

»  Cf.  Ephemens,  Vol.  II,  p.  203. 

*  Revue  Semitique,  July,  1908. 

» See  Jour,  Amer.  Or.  Soc,  1908,  p.  204. 


198   AMURRU    HOME    OF   NORTHERN    SEMITES 

improved  upon.  For  the  change  of  r  to  sh,  compare 
martum  (TUR-SAL)  =  mashtum,  "daughter"  (Jensen, 
Z.  A.,  IV,  p.  436),  shipishti  for  shipirti  in  the  Murashil 
Documents;  the  Neo-Baby Ionian  personal  name  Mash- 
tuku,  written  Martuku  in  the  Cassite  period;  also  the 
deity  Ashka'iti  =  ArkaHti,  and  the  article  by  Jensen, 
Z.  A,,  VII,  p.  179.  For  an  exact  parallel  to  the  EN- 
MARTU  =  Bel-Amurru  cf.  EN-KAS  =  Bel-Uarran, 
in  the  name  index  of  Johns,  Deeds  and  Documents,  and 
Doomsday  Book)  but  especially  DINGIR-MAR-TU, 
"the  deity  of  Amurru/'  In  arguing  for  an  Amorrte 
origin  of  NIN-IB,  or,  better  expressed,  that  it  represented 
a  deity  of  Amurru,  as  others  had  done,^  reference  was 
mad(^  to  the  West  Semitic  name  Ahdi-NIN-IB,  the  city 
^^NIN-IB  according  to  the  collation  of  Knudtzon,^ 
and  the  name  of  a  place  or  temple  in  or  near  Jerusalem 
(i.e.,  in  the  district  of  the  city)  called  Bit-NIN-IB} 
In  the  same  paper  it  was  suggested  that  NIN-IB  was 
originally  the  chief  goddess  Ba'alat  Amurru,  which 
perhaps  was  Ashtarti;  and  that  at  some  center  in  Baby- 
lonia, probably  Dilbat,  the  deity  appeared  as  the  consort 
of  IB,  who  later  was  known  as  Urash.  In  other  words, 
the  theory  is  that  the  god  of  the  West,  when  introduced 
at  a  certain  center  in  Babylonia,  was  written  by  the 
Sumcrian  chirographers  IB,  which  conveyed  to  them 


'Cf.  B.  A.,  IV,  p.  114. 
« Cf.  K.  B.,  V. 


THE    NAME    NIN-IB  199 

the  idea  represented  by  the  Western  solar  deity;'  and 
his  consort's  name,  probably  Ashtarti,  was  written 
NIN-IB.^  Later,  as  was  the  case  in  so  many  instances 
when  NIN-IB  became  masculinized,^  in  certain  quarters 
the  deity  was  regarded  as  the  "Lord"  par  excellence 
of  Amurru,  i.e.,  Ba'al  Amurru,  when  the  Sumerian 
equivalent  EN-MAR-TU,  "Lord  Amurru,''  was  intro- 
duced. And  this  Sumerian  form,  like  EN-LIL,  was 
handed  down  into  later  times,  as  the  Aramaic  form  of 
the  name  shows.  Of  course,  it  is  not  necessary  to  waste 
space  in  showing  how  EN-MAR-TU,  like  EN-LIL, 
could  pass  into  Babylonian  as  Enwashtu  and  Ellil,  and 
be  reproduced  in  Aramaic  as  nj^**)^N  and  77^^. 

Another  theory  concerning  the  reading  and  under- 
standing of  the  name  by  the  help  of  the  Aramaic 
now  becomes  more  plausible.  In  discussing  the  name 
Gilga-Mesh  it  became  apparent  that  the  name  is  West 
Semitic,  written  in  Sumerian,  and  that  it  perhaps  con- 
tains the  name  of  the  mountain  god  Mash,  which  is 
to  be  identified  with  Mash  (C'D)  of  Genesis  10  :  23. 
It  was  further  shown  that  in  Nineveh  there  was  a 
temple  E-M ASH-MASH,  which  is  written  E-MISH- 

1  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  Zimmern  (K.  A.  T.^,  p.  411),  in 
discussing  Bit-NIN-IB  of  Jerusalem,  as  against  Haupt  (Joshua, 
Poly.  Bib.,  p.  54),  who  says  that  NIN-IB  represents  Yahweh, 
assumes  among  the  other  possibilities  that  it  may  be  a  designation 
of  a  native  deity,  Shamash  or  El. 

2  It  is  not  improbable  that  N  IN -MAR,  the  name  of  the  deity  in 
Girsu,  of  whom  Ur-Nina,  Dungi  and  others  were  patrons,  represents 
the  same  god;  cf.  also  the  personal  name  Ur-^NIN-MAR^ 
(F.  B.,  I,  pt.  1,  p.  148,  No.  21). 

'  Cf,  Barton,  Semitic  Origins. 


200   AMURRU    HOME    OF   NORTHERN    SEMITES 

MISH  in  the  {Jammurabi  Code;  and  also  that  the 
temple  of  the  West  Semitic  Nergal  at  Cutha  is  called 
E-MISH-LAM,  and  that  the  temple  at  Agade  is  called 
E-UL-MASH.  The  element  was  also  shown  to  be  in 
the  names  Di-Mash-qi,  Karke-Mish,  etc.  (see  Part  II). 
In  Bezold's  Catalogue  of  the  Kouyunjik  Collection,^ 
and  in  Briinnow's  Classified  List,  No.  1778,  the  following 
formula  is  found: 

Ma-ash  \  MASH  \  ma-a-shu  \  ^NIN-IB 

This  considered  in  connection  with  the  ideogram 
MASH,  which  was  commonly  used  in  wiiting  the  name 
of  the  deity,  becomes  especially  interesting.  Then  also 
in  Bezold's  Catalogue^  the  following  is  written: 

^Ma-a-shu  u  ^Ma-ash-tum  mdre  Sin. 

"The  god  Mdshu  and  Mdshtum  children  of  *Sm. " 

Mdshtu,  therefore,  was  originally  the  feminine  of 
Mash.  NIN-IB  originally  was  feminine  and  later 
became  masculinized  (see  above).  In  a  group  of  gods 
given  in  connection  with  their  consorts  in  Harper's 
Letters,^  NIN-IB  follows  NIN-IB  as  if  his  counterpart,* 
which  very  likely  is  due  to  the  fact  that  at  that  time 
the  god  and  his  consort  bore  one  and  the  same  name. 
This  change  in  sex  naturally  points  to  a  misunderstand- 
ing at  some  time.     NIN-IB  therefore  could  be  regarded 

»  K.,  7790,  ,  p.  875. 

'  It  is  of  course  not  impossible  that  NIN-IB  is  a  mistake  for  Gula. 

*K.,  6:«5,  p.  81. 

*  Vol.  IV.  No.  358. 


THE   NAME   NIN-IB  201 

as  equivalent  to  Mdshtu.  EN-Mashtu,  i.e.,  EN,  "  lord, " 
and  Mdshtu,  the  god[dess],  may  have  arisen  in  such  a 
center  as  Nippur,  where  the  deity  became  one  of  the 
patron  gods  of  the  city ;  that  is,  after  the  feminine  Mdshtu 
had  become  masculinized  the  deity  was  called  "Lord 
Mdshtu,"  like  LUGAL-Urra,  "King  or  Lord  Vra,''  etc. 
This  explanation  I  now  regard  preferable,  but  it  is  to  be 
noted  that  both  identify  the  deity  with  the  West. 


V.   THE  NAME  YAHWEH 


With  the  discovery  of  the  name  Yahweh  in  the 
cuneiform  literature,  exclusive  of  proper  names,  under 
the  form  Jdwu{m)  (see  page  89),  the  question  arises 
whether  it  throws  any  light  on  the  ancient  pronunciation 
of  the  divine  name. 

Before  the  discovery  of  the  Aramaic  papyri  at 
Assuan,  certain  scholars  claimed  that  Yahweh  is  identi- 
cal with  the  Canaanitic  deity  Jahu,  which  they  said  is 
found  in  Ja-u-j^a-zi,  Ja-u-hi--di,  etc.  Since  the  discov- 
ery of  the  Assuan  papyri,^  in  which  ^TV  occurs  for  the 
divine  name,  it  seems  that  scholars  generally  have 
adopted  the  reading  JahH.  This  conclusion,  however, 
cannot  be  maintained. 

In  a  former  work  I  endeavored  to  show^  that  the 
divine  name  of  the  pre-Christian  period  was  practically 
identical  with  the  pronunciation  which  Theodoret 
informs  us  he  obtained  from  the  Samaritans,  namely 
7a,Se,  which  is  also  found  in  a  Samaritan  letter  in 
Arabic  to  de  Sacy,^  namely,  Jahwa  or  Jahwe,  and  the 
pronunciation  which  has  been  accepted  for  years, 
namely  Jahweh,    This,  as  has  been  claimed,  is  preserved 

'  See  Sachau,  Aramaische  Papj/rusurkiinden,  p.  25.  "Die  Juden 
in  Elephantin  nannten  ihrcn  Gott  nicht  mri"'  sondem  JH'',  wofiirich 
nach  Vorgang  dcr  Assyrer  die  Aiissprache  Jcihd  annehme." 

'  Ldght  on  the  Old  Testament  from  Babel,  p.  247f . 

'  See  Montgomery,  Journal  of  Biblical  Literature,  XXV,  1906, 
p.  50. 

202 


THE    NAME    YAHWEH  203 

in  Jcma  (Ja-a-ma),^  an  element  in  Jewish  names  in  the 
Neo-Baby Ionian  period'  and  in  Jdwu(m)  on  the  tablet 
in  the  Morgan  Library  Collection  (see  p.  89),  and  on  one  in 
the  possession  of  Professor  Delitzsch,  which  came  from 
the  same  source. 

The  chief  objection  to  the  pronunciation  JdhH  is  to 
be  found  in  the  writing  tl)il\  the  Old  Testament  form 
of  the  name,  w^hich  also  occurs  on  the  Moabite  stone. 
Can  it  be  said  that  the  Hebrew  writers  in  Israel  and 
Moab  did  not  know  how  to  write  the  divine  name? 
What  does  the  additional  final  letter  mean?  Did  they 
add  it  to  obscure  the  pronunciation?  Or,  did  the  Jews 
pronounce  the  name  one  way  in  Palestine,  and  another 
way  in  Egypt,  and  still  another  way  in  Babylonia? 
The  writer  maintains  that  niH^,  )il\  as  well  as  Jdvm 
(Jdwi  and  Jdwa),  all  represent  the  same  pronunciation; 
and,  as  above,  that  this  pronunciation  is  preserved  in  the 
Greek  7a/3£,  in  the  Arabic  Jahwe,  and  in  the  accepted 
modern  transcription  Jahwe  or  Jahweh. 

As  the  first  element  in  personal  names,  Yahweh 
occurs  in  the  Assyrian  historical  inscriptions  as  Ja-u,  in 
Ja-u-]}azi  and  Ja-u-hi^di;  and  in  the  Neo-Babylonian 
period  as  Ja-fj^u-u,  Ja-a-hu-u  and  Ja-a-]m  in  Ja-Jiu-u- 
natannu,  etc'    Perhaps  also  it  is  to  be  found  in  Ja-ii- 


^  See  Clay,  Ldght  on  the  Old  Testament  from,  Babel,  p.  248. 

2  Pinches,  Proc.  Soc.  Bib.  Arch.,  XV,  13ff.,  was  the  first  to 
call  attention  to  these  names. 

'  See  Clay,  B.  E.,  Vol.  X,  p.  19,  and  Light  on  the  Old  Testament 
from  Babel,  p.  241  f. 


204  AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 

hdni  of  the  Cassite  period/  and  in  Jaum-El  of  the  Ham- 
murabi period  (see  below). 

As  the  second  element  in  personal  names  it  occurs 
in  Ashirat-Ja-wi  in  the  Hamnmrabi  period  of  V.  S,  VII 
157  :7,  and  in  Aki-Ja-mi  (Ja-wi)  of  theTa'annek  tablet; 
and  in  the  Assyrian  historical  inscriptions  as  Ja-a-u 
and  Ja-u  in  Qazaqi- Ja-a-u,  etc.,  in  the  Gezer  tablet  in 
Natan-Ja-u,  also  in  the  Neo-Babylonian  tablets  as  Ja- 
a-ma  (Jdwa),  in  Natannu-Ja-a-ma,  etc.^  It  is  not  im- 
probable that  it  occurs  also  in  other  forms,  as  in  Qa-an- 
ni-ja,  etc.,  which,  owing  to  their  uncertainty,  are  not 
included  in  the  discussions.^ 

Assuming  that  Jdwu{m)  of  the  early  period,  the  only 
form  known  where  in  cuneiform  it  is  not  compounded 
with  other  elements,  represents  the  divine  name,  it  can 
be  shown  that  the  same  pronunciation  also  represents 
the  element  when  written  in  the  Hebrew  script. 

The  form  lil^  as  the  first  element,  when  reproduced 
in  cuneiform  in  the  Assyrian  period,  became  Ja-u,  where 
the  h  between  the  two  vowels  was  elided;  and  m  the 
Neo-Babylonian  period  it  became  Ja-lj^u-u,  Ja-a-Ji^u  and 
Ja-a-lifU-u,  where  the  h  is  represented  by  the  Babylonian 
fi.  The  explanation  of  the  Massoretic  IH^  usually  offered 
is  the  one  proposed  by  the  late  Professor  Franz 
Delitzsch,*  namely:   IH*  =  111^  =  in\     It  seems  to  me 


1  See  aay,  B.  E.,  Vol.  XV,  p.  32. 
'  See  Light  on  the  Old  Testament,  p.  244. 

'  On    these,  see    Jiustrow,  Journal   of  Biblical  Literature,  XIV» 
108  ff..  and  Daiches.  Zcit.  fiir  Ass.,  XXU.  p.  125  flF. 
*SecZ.A.  W.,  n,  173  f.;   280  fT. 


THE    NAME    YAHWEH  205 

that  the  origin  of  the  form  ')n\  is  to  be  found  in  )r}l 
which  was  the  full  name;  and  that  Jahwu-natan  became 
Jahu-natan  or  Jaho-natan.  The  consonant  w  followed 
by  a  homogeneous  vowel,  owing  to  the  secondary  accent 
falling  on  the  syllable,  quiesced,  like  0)'p'!_  =  0)p\ 

The  element  appearing  in  the  second  place  is  not  so 
difficult  to  explain.  Prof.  Franz  Delitzsch  claimed  that 
)ni  =  ^^^  which  became  ^^  It  appears  to  me  that  the 
formula  should  be  ^lll!  =  ^lil!,  which  became  HJ,  the  final 
consonant  being  syncopated.  The  ending  Jau  in  the 
Assyrian  period  can  be  said  to  reproduce  *)»7!;  that  is, 
the  u  may  have  been  soimded  like  the  semiconsonant  w. 
The  element  is  also  represented  in  the  Neo-Babylonian 
Jdwa. 

The  identification  of  Jdwa  made  originally  by  Pinches 
was  accepted  by  other  scholars,  who  seemed  to  think 
that  Jdwa  represented  the  full  name.  Prof.  Jastrow^ 
took  the  view  that  Jdma  was  an  emphatic  affirmative. 
In  opposing  the  writer's  view  on  the  subject  Prof. 
Hilprecht  accepted^  that  of  Prof.  Jastrow;  but  the  latter 
has  since  abandoned  the  explanation  by  reason  of  the 
many  examples  in  the  Murashu  texts. 

In  the  first  place  it  has  been  conclusively  shown  that 
Jdma^  is  the  divine  name.  Concerning  the  form  of  the 
writing,  two  possible  explanations  seem  plausible.  The 
first  would  follow  those  who  hold  that  it  represents  the 

1  Journal  of  Biblical  Literature,  XIII,  p.  101  ff.,  Z.A.,  X,  p.  222  f., 
andZ..l.r.Tf.,  XVI,p.  Iff. 

2  See  Editorial  Preface  to  my  B.E.,  X,  p.  xv,  also  Daiches, 
Z.A.,  XXII,  p.  128  ff. 

3  Clay,  Ldght  on  the  Old  Testament,  p.  242  f . 


206  AMURRU   HOME   OF   NORTHERN   SEMITES 

imcontractcd  name,  in  wliich  case,  however,  a  reason 
must  be  given  why  it  is  not  apocopated,  inasmuch  as  the 
element  in  Hebrew  names  is  always  shortened.  This  is 
also  shown  by  the  Septuagint.  My  o\mi  suggestion^  is 
that  the  Babylonian  scribes  recognized  the  element  as 
the  name  of  the  Hebrew  god,  and  that  in  their  schools 
they  were  taught  to  write  the  full  name  of  the  deity 
when  it  appeared  as  the  second  element  m  names.  The 
name,  therefore,  was  not  written  as  they  heard  it,  but, 
as  they  treated  their  own  Babylonian  names,  according 
to  fixed  rules.  When  we  consider  that  Hebrew  names 
compounded  with  Jd.ma  occur  more  frequently  in  the 
Murashu  documents  than  Babylonian  names  com- 
pounded with  their  own  prominent  deities,  such  as  Addu, 
Bau,  Ea,  etc.,  we  can  readily  understand  that  this  could 
be  an  adopted  orthography.  Of  the  twenty-five  or  more 
different  names  compounded  with  Jama,  some  of  which 
occur  very  often,  there  is  not  a  single  variation  from  the 
form  Ja-a-ma;  and  in  every  instance  it  is  without  the 
determinative  for  deity.  An  illustration  of  such  an 
adopted  writing  is  to  be  seen  in  AX-MESH  or  ilu^^ 
which  represents  the  West  Semitic  '^N.^ 

Another  and  perfectly  reasonable  theory  is  that 
either  the  final  vowel  of  Jdma  was  not  pronounced 
distinctly,  but  as  a  light  overhanging  vowel  like  Jdiv^; 
or  it  was  not  pronounced  at  all,  like  Jdw.  In  other 
words,  Jdwa  or  Jdw(a)  stands  for  the  apocopated  form  of 
the  divine  name  Jdhwu.    This  apocopation  or  shortening 

'  Light  on  the  Old  Testnment,  p.  247. 

'See  Clay,  Old  Testament  and  Semitic  Studies,  I,  p.  316. 


THE    NAME    YAHWEH  207 

of  the  final  vowel  was  due  to  the  emphasis  being  placed 
on  the  first  syllable  of  the  divine  name,  e.g.,  Natan- 
Jdhwu  became  Natan-Jahw{u). 

Such  an  explanation  also  accounts  for  the  change  to 
n^,  so  commonly  found  in  the  Old  Testament,  and  in 
the  Assuan  papyri,  the  final  w  being  apocopated.  It 
should  be  added  that  the  Massoretic  pointing,  while 
possible  according  to  phonetic  laws,  is  not  supported  by 
the  Septuagint,  which  usually  transliterates  this  ending 
ta?.  It  would  appear,  therefore,  that  T^^^\^  as  well  as  IH* 
were  pronounced  Jahwu{e,a) ;  and  that  this  pronuncia- 
tion was  in  use  as  early  as  the  Hammurabi  period. 
Furthermore,  Yahweh  being  probably  of  Aramsean 
origin,  IH^  may  be  the  Aramsean  form  of  the  name, 
inasmuch  as  the  Assuan  papyri  are  written  in  Aramaic. 

These  conclusions  necessitate  the  reconsideration  of 
such  names  as  Ja--wi-ilu  ^  and  Ja-wi-ilu,  which  Sayce, 
Delitzsch  and  others  have  regarded  as  containing  the 
divine  name.  These  names,  as  is  well  known,  can  also 
be  read  Ja'pi-El.  In  addition  to  the  fact  that  there  is 
not  a  single  instance  in  the  Hebrew  literature  where  the 
name  Yahweh  remained  unchanged  when  appearing  as 
a  first  element  in  proper  names,  the  West  Semitic  name 
Ja-pa-El,^  also  of  the  Hammurabi  period,  makes  it  quite 
reasonable  that  the  reading  should  be  Ja'pi  or  Japi 
instead  of  Ja'wi  or  Jaioi;  and  that  the  stem  of  the 
element  is  probably  rrDH,  "to  cover."     The  name  could 


» Cf.  C.T.,  VIII,  20,  314:3,  and  VIII,  34, 544  : 4;  and  Ranke,  B.E., 
VI,  1,  17:38. 

2  Ungnad,  V.  S.,  5,  VIII,  10  :  39. 


2U8  AMURRU   HOME   OF   NORTHERN    SEMITES 

be  translated,  as  has  been  stated,  "God  has  covered, 
protected/'  On  the  other  hand,  the  name  Ja-u-um-El, 
belongmg  to  the  early  period,  probably  represents  the 
divine  name,  because  the  element  appears  in  the  short- 
ened form  exactly  as  found  in  later  periods.* 

1  Light  on  the  Old  Testament,  p.  237. 


INDEX 


A-ba-ra-ma,  86,  170 
Abdi-Ashirta,  152 
Abdi-NINIB,  198 
Abel-Be th-Maacah,  60 
Abram,  89,  90 
Abraham,  14,  40,  58,  85 
Adad,  38,  48,  87,  88,  131 
Adad-nirari  III,  98 
Adad-Teshup,  79 
Adam,  43 
Ada-pa,  64 
Addu-taqummu,  101 
Adoni-Zedek,  154 
Agade,  79,  192 
A-gar-Til-la,  103 
Aelian,  78 
Ahi-Jdwi,  206 
Akkad,  97,  192 
Aku,  111 

A-KUR-GAL,  113 
Alap,  64 

Alaporus,  63,  64,  158 
Alap-Uru,  64 
Alashia,  38 

Alexander  Polyhistor,  66 
A-li-ba-ni-shu,  112 
Almelon,  63 
Al-NashJm-milki,  158 
Aloros,  63 
Al-Si\  158 
Amal,  65 
ylmar,  95,  116 
A-ma-ra,  28,  29 
Amar-a-pa,  101 
Amar-na-ta-nu,  101 
Amar-ra-pa,  101 
Amar-sha-al-ti,  101 
Amar-Sin,  118,  193 
A-ma-ru,  107,  117,  119 
Amar-uduk,  92,  95,  120 

14 


Amegalarus,  63 
amelu,  64 
Amel-Aruru,  65 
Amcl-Sin,  66 
Amel-Uru,  65 
A-me-ir-rum ,  106 
Amemphsinus,  63 
'awir,  107 
'amm,  107 
Arnmenon,  63 
Ammi-ditana,  98 
Ammon,  98 
Amqi,  151 
Amraphel,  111 
Amur,  100 
A-ww-ra,  28,  97 
A-mur-Ashur,  161 
Amur-fiaiia,  102 
Amur-ilu,  161 
A-mur-Ishtar,  161 
Amwrra,  97 
A-mur-ri-qa-nu,  119 
Amwrrw,  101,  passim 
Amurru-natannu,  102 
Amurru-nazabi,  102 
Amurru-shama,  102 
A-mwr-sa-nw,  120 
A-mur-Shamash,  161 
A-mur-si-gu,  120 
A-mur-tin-nu,  119 
Anammelek,  143 
A-na-at-da-la-ti,  143 
'Anath,  143 
'Anathoth,  143 
Aner,  143 
AN-MESH,  208 
An-ram,  143 
Antum,  142 
Aww,  142 
Anu-banini,  143 


209 


210    AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 


A  nu-ram,  144 

Apsu,  47.53 

Arabia,  24,  77,  83 

Arad-vSin,  110 

Arallii,  77 

Aram,  24 

Aram- Damascus,  179 

Ararat,  75 

Ardata,  67 

Arfa-Kesed,  170 

Arga7nan,  104,  120 

.In,  13,  104 

Arpad,  180 

Arpadda(u).  180 

Artaxerxes  I,  68 

Aruru,  64 

Ashbel.  123 

Asher,  65 

Ashera,  140 

Ashirat-Jawi,  206 

Ashirta,  38 

A-shir-ma-lik,  139 

Ashtarti,  198,  199 

Ash-tar-Til-la,  103 

Ashur,  138 

Ashurbanipal,  17,  46,  53,  54,  59, 

60,98 
Astrology,  15 
Athtara,  141 
Augustine,  51 
Aures,  43 
Aurus,  69 
Awa-ar-i-lum,  120 
Awa-ar-ka-sir,  120 
Awa-ar-sa-na-bu,  120 
Awa-ar-si-qir,  120 
awdtu,  105 
awHu,  105 
AwU-Ishtar,  171 
A-wi-lu-tim,  106 
A-uH-ir-tum,  106 
Aziru,  152 

lin'al,  38 

Hal)el,  91 

Habvlon,  142 

Baothgen,  F.,  128 

Banks,  E.  J.,  114,  142,  188 


Bar-iksu,  145 

Barsip,  174 

Barton,  George  A.,  13,  17,  43, 

44,    83,    114,    124,    141,    151, 

169,  199 
Bau,  38 

Bayt-sha-ra,  127 
Beirut,  70 
Bel,  20,  37,  47,  102 
Bel-Uarran,  198 
Benhadad,  87 
Berosus,  63.  68,  170 
BHh-'Anath,  143 
Beth-Dagan,  146 
Bethel,  128 
Beth-Lehem,  147 
BHh-sha-El,  127 
Bethshean,  128 
Beth-Shemcsh,  125 
Bethuel,  172 
Bezold,  r^arl,  200 
Bi-in-ga-nl-shnr-ri,  185 
Bilga-Mish,  79 
BIL-LIL,  113,  114 
Bilaqqu,  79 
Bir-Adad,  123 
Bir-Hadad,  132 
Bir-napishtim,  80,  134 
Bir-napishtifn-iisur,  80 
Bismava.  142 
Bit-NiN-IB,  198 
BU-Yakin,  170 
Bork,  F.,  103 
Brockelmann,  (\arl,  84 
Brown,  F'rancis,  163,  164 
Brijnnow.    Rudolph,    115,    117, 

120.  123.  200 
Bulil,  Frail/.  163 
BU{S1R)-SE-NE,  119,  133 
BUR-BUR,  102,  113 
BUR-BUR-DA,  112 
Bur-Sin,  118.  193 
Buzur-KUR-GAL,  82 
Buzar-Oni,  82 
Byblos,  157 

Cain,  65 

Cappadocian  tablets,  37,  39,  43 


INDEX 


211 


Garmel,  87 

ChampoUion,  29 

Chedorlaomer,  98 

Constantia,  103 

Cooke,  G.  A.,  27,  123.  157,  160, 

178 
Cory,  52 

Craig,  J.  Alexander,  139 
Cutha,  115 
Cyrus,  38,  98 

Dagan,  38,  146 

Daiches,  Samuel,  206,  207 

Damascus,  126,  128,  130 

Darius  II,  68 

Dati-Ellil,  67,  187 

David,  17 

Da{v)onus,  63 

Delattre,  A.  J.,  99 

Delitzsch,  Franz,  206,  207 

Delitzsch,  Friedricli,  36,  37,  49, 
57,  71,  80,  89,  105,  107,  119, 
120,  125,  128,  161,  205,  209 

Der,  130 

de  Sacy,  204 

Dhorme,  P.,  123,  184,  185 

Dhu'l  galasa,  128 

Dhu'l  Shara,  128 

Diarbekir,  97,  98,  103,  193 

Dilbat,  198 

Dillmann,  A.,  72,  167 

DI-Marduk,  116 

Di-mash-qi,  79,  129,  200 

Dim-mas-qa,  130 

Driver,  S.  R.,  44,  162 

DUMU-URU,  110 

Dungi,  97,  118,  128,  192 

dUr,  130 

Ea,  47,  53 
Ea-bdni,  81 
Ebed-Urash,  123 
Ed-Deir,  147 
Edom,  98 
Edoranchus,  63,  69 
Egyptian,  32 
Ehud,  17 
Elam,  97 


El-Elyon,  158 

Eliezer,  40,  129 

Ellil,  37,  47,  48,  56.  95,  117 

Ellil-bani,  39 

ellu,  107 

Elohim,  124 

El-Shaddai,  127,  158 

Elul,  57,  59 

El-Ur,  64,  158 

E-MASH-MASH,  78,  126,  199 

E-MISH-MISH,  78 

E-MISH-LAM,  78 

Emutbal,  97 

Engi,  13 

EN-GI-DU,  81 

EN-KI-DU,  81 

EN-MAR-TU,  121 

EN-Mdshtu,  121,  122 

En-me-dur-an-ki,  66 

En-na-Zu-in,  146 

Enoch,  66,  69 

Enosh,  64 

Enshagkushanna,  192 

Envdshtu,  199 

Erebus,  52 

Erech,  76,  78,  126,  142 

Ereshkigal,  33 

Eri,  177 

Eria,  112 

Eri-Aku,  193 

Eridu,  45,  47,  53 

Esh-ba'al,  123 

Eshu,  38 

Ethiopic  language,  83 

etimmu,  51 

Etruscans,  23 

Ezekiel,  163 

E-UL-MASH,  71,  126 

E-UL-LAM,  78 

Eupolemus,  168 

Eusebius,  52 

Galilee,  60 
GAL-UR-RA,  113 
gamdru,  56 
Gar,  151 

Gautier,  182,  183 
gemini,  16 


212   AMURRU    HOME    OF   NORTHERN    SEMITES 


Gezer,  24 

Gideon,  17 

Gilead.  60 

Gilgaraesh,  50.  73.   74,   76,   77, 

79,81,  122,  126,  129 
Gimil-Anim,  143 
Gimil-Sin,  96,  193 
GIR-URU,  110 
GISH-BIL-GA ,  79 
GfSH-BIL-GA-MISH,  78 
GISII-TU-MASII,  78 
Gray,  G.  B.,  164 
Greeks,  22 

Griinme.  H.,  145,  158 
Gubla,  152 
Gudoa,    31,   97,    103,    120,    128, 

130,  180,  193 
Gula,  38,  200 
Gungunu,  193 
Gunkel,  H.,  36,  44,  51,  55,  71, 

72,  73 

Hagar,  40 

Halevy.  J.,  42,  107,  182,  197 

iialia,  140 

Jialiqalbat,  140 

Uali-Jaum,  90 

Ualili,  140 

Uallu,  140 

Hamatli,  157 

Hammurabi.  40,  41,  46,  59.  78, 

79,  89,  97,  98,   107,  HI.  116, 

117,  186,  193 
Uarui,  147 
IJa-an-ni-ia,  206 
Haran,  16 
Haran  O'nsus,  145 
Harper,  R.  F..  124,  180,  200 
Ha.stings,  James,  151,  162.  167 
Ilmihun,  154 
ILuipt.  Paul,  80,  115,  141,  176, 

199 
^  iwiru,  105 
Haynes,  J.  H.,  188 
Hazor,  (M) 
Hebron.  154 
Helm,  J..  56 
Hermon.  126 


Herodotus,  35,  142 

Hilprecht,   H.  V.,   43,   78.    118, 

124,  132,  159,  181,  207 
Hinke,  W.  J.,  112 
hirtu,  106 
Hittite.  32 
Hoham,  154 
Hommel,  F.,  30,  63,  65,  66,  77, 

78,80,84,  118,  139,  141,  154, 

161,  178,  179,  181 
Horeb.  87 
Hrozny,  F.,  197 

Huber,  P.  E.,  109,  110,  111,  112 
gu-di-ib-Til-la,  103 

IB,  38 

ibbu,  107 
Ibgatum,  106 
Ibi-Sin,  193 
Igur-kapkapu,  140 
ihir,  106 
Ijon,  60 

Ikdn-pi-f)'ru,  113 
ill,  124 

Il-Tehiri-abi,  158 
Il-yapVa,  154 
Ilu-nrapa,  101 
IM-MAR-TU,  100 
imtilt,  105 
iniih,  105 
I-n-ir-Til-la,  103 
'Ir-Mardiik,  176 
'Ir-Nahash,  176 
'Ir-Shemesh,  176 
Irushalim,  176 
Ishbi-Urru,  110 
I-shir-shar-ri,  185 
Ishme-Dagan,  146,  193 
Ishtar,  16.  aS.  141 
Uhtar-ki-Til-kL,  103 
Ishum,  133 
\s'm  dynasty.  96 
I-ti-Da-gan,  147 

Jabni-El,  178 
Jacob.  18 
Jahil,  S6 
Ja-l^u-u,  205 


INDEX 


213 


Jahweh,  104 

Jdma,  104,  206 

Janoah,  60 

Ja'pi-El,  209 

Jarmuth,  154 

Joseph-el,  178 

Jastrow,  Jr.,  Morris,  21,  22,  23, 
26,  27,  31,  44,  46,  47,  71,  74, 
80,  107,  114,  132,206,  207 

Ja-ash-hi-i-la,  110 

Ja-u-ba-ni,  206 

Ja-u-Ua-zi,  204 

Jaum,  90 

Ja-u-um-El,  210 

Jaw,  20 

Ja'wi-ilu,  89 

Ja-wu-um,  89,  90,  204 

Jensen,  Peter,  18,  19,  48,  55,  77, 
78,  80,  99,  114,  115,  116,  117, 
118,  128,  131,  142,  197,  198 

Jeremias,  A.,  18, 63,  64,  65,  79,80 

Jezreel,  178 

Johns,  C.  H.  W.,  58,  59,  60,  89, 
100,  145,  158,  159,  160,  172, 
189,  194,  198 

Jonah,  53 

Joppa,  53 

Kadashman-Enlil,  37 

KA-GAL-AD-KI,  129 

Karke-Mish,  200 

Kedesh,  60 

Kenites,  34,  90 

Kesed,  170 

Khatti,  98 

KI-BUR-BUR,  190 

Kikia,  140 

King,  L.  W.,  112,  183,  184,  186, 

191 
Kiryatharba,  16 
Kish,  89 

Kittel,  Rudolph,  167,  172 
Knudtzon,  J.  A..  37 
Kudur-Mabug,  11,  97,  193 
Kugler,  Franz,  21 
KUR-GAL,  88,  102 
KUR-GAL-eHsh,  102 
KUR-MAR-TU,  99 


La'ash,  157 

Laban, 172  ^ 

Lachish,  24 

LaUdmu,  53,  147 

La^mu,  147 

Lamech,  66 

Langdon,  Stephen,  143 

Larsa,  110,  138 

Layard,  Henry,  103 

Leander,  Pontus,  118 

Libit-Ishtar,  96,  193 

Lidzbarski,  Mark,  24,  144,  155, 

157,  158,  159,  160,  178,  197 
lillu,  52 

LinuJi-libbi-Ellil,  56 
Linufi-libbi-ildni ,  56 
Lipush-Jaum,  90 
Little  Zab,  75 
Lot,  14 

Lugal-kisalsi,  114 
LUGAL-Urra,  38,  116,  201 
Lugal-zaggisi,  192 
Lyon,  D.  G.,  153 

Macalister,  Alexander,  153 
Macalister,  Stewart,  24,  28,  153, 

155 
Malik,  134 

Malik-ZI-NI-SU,  134 
Malki-Zedek,  154 
Manishtusu,  146 
Mar,  95,  100 
Mar-bVdi,  100 
Marches  van,  57,  59 
Mardin,  103 
Marduk,  20,  36,  37,  38,  44,  45, 

46,  48,  49,  57,  95,  101,  116, 

118 
Mar-eriqqu,  120 
Mar-irrish,  100 
MAR-KI,  116 
Mar-larimme,  100 
Mar-pa-da-ai,  180 
Mar-suri,  100 

MAR-TU,  77,  97,  99,  100.  113 
MAR-TU-Crish,  102 
Martuku,  198 
MASH,  78.  107.  199 


214   AMURRU    HOME    OF    NORTHERN    SEMITES 


MASH-MASH,  38 

Mashtuhu,  198 

Mdshtum,  198.  200,  201 

M^ifihu,  38,  10,  126,  128,  200 

Megiddo,  24,  27 

Mrinhold,  J.,  56 

Meissner,   Bruno,  81,   103,   105, 

107,  115,  173,  179 
Mcnant,  J.,  181 
Menes,  30 
MESH,  78 
Mesheq,  129,  131 
Methu-Salah,  66 
MetM-sha-El  66,  127 
Me-Tilla,  103 
Meyer,  Ediiard,  54,  96,  97 
Mil-ki-U-ri,  134,  156 
Milkani,  102 
Mi-f^ha-El  127 
MISH,  78 

Mish(?)-ki-Til-la,  103 
Mitanni,  32,  38,  43 
Moab,  98 
Montgomery,  James  A.,  50,  121, 

157,  162,  197,  204 
Moore,  G.  A.,  23,  134 
Morgan  Library  Collection ,  28,43, 

51,  73,80,  88,  89,  114,  194,  205 
Moriah,  87 
Mosaic  ('ode,  41 
Moses,  17 
Mt.  Nisir,  75 
Mt.  Siriai,  145 
Muqavyar,  167,  168 
Miillef,  D.  H.,  180 
M.iller,  W.  Max,  29,  30,  127,  157 
MuHk-Tidnum,  90 
}.I  ur-(ir-na-tim ,  1 20 
Mur-hahillu,  120 
MUR-ihni,  134 
Mur-nisqi,  120 
Miir-siparru,  120 
Muss-Amolt,   W.,   79,   80,    107, 

112,  120,  141 
Mutu-sha-Irkhu,  66 

Nabonidus,  98 
Nabil,  144 


NabiX-idri,  144 

N abd-napiahtlm-usur ,  80 

Nabu-rapa,  144 

Naliar'ru,  172 

Na^iri,  172 

Na^rimn,  151 

namnru,  107 

Namratum,  106 

Namtar,  33 

Nand,  38 

Nannar,  97,  169 

Naphtali,  60 

Naram-Sin,  115 

Nashhi,  132 

nawdru,  105 

Nebuchadrezzar,  68,  98 

Nergal,  33,  37,  38,  114,  115,  117, 

121,  126,  133 
NE-URU-GAL,  95,  115,  119 
Nielsen,  60 
Nikkal,  95 
NIN-GAL,  95 
Nin-gir-su,  146 
Nin-Girtiu,  48,  131 
NIN-IB,   37,   38,  89,   121.    126, 

178 
NIN-IB-iddina,  195 
NIN-NE-URU(UNU),  115 
NIN-MAR,  199 
Ninrag,  195 
Nippur,  47 
Nisin,  97 

Nisin  dynasty,  95 
Nisroch,  195' 
NIT  A,  113 
Noah,  76 

Noldeke,  Theodore,  47 
Nowack,  W..  26 
nv-ufi,  55.  76.  80 
Nufuishshi,  129 
Nui-libbi-iirtni,  56 
Niifi-iMftishtiin,  80 
7inmush(la,  197 
Nushku,  37.  132 


Og,  154 

Ohnstead,  A. 
Omri,  98 


T.,  103 


INDEX 


215 


Oppert,  J.,  181 
Oros,  69 
Otiartes,  64 

pa-la-qu,  79 

Paran,  87 

Paton,  L.  B.,  13 

Pedaiah,  140 

Pedahel,  140 

Peiser,  Felix,  102 

Pepy,  30 

Per,  80 

Petrie,  F.,  29,  30 

Philistia,  98 

Phoenicia,  98 

Pinches,  T.  G.,  37,  46.  54,  78, 

103,  110,  119,  125,  161,  167, 

176,  181,  205,  207 
Pir,  80 
Piram,  154 
Pir-napishtim,  80 
Poebel,  Arno,  78,  81,  106,  112. 

137,  157,  173,  181 
Pognon,   H.,   50,   64,    124,    145, 

157,  162 
Prince,  J.  D.,  100 
Pudi-El,  140 

qamar,  170 
Qenan,  65 
Qideshu,  152 
QI-MASH,  129 
Qi-Mash-qi,  128 

Rameses  II,  99,  103 

Ranke,    Hermann,    54,    79,    90, 

96,    106,    109,   110,    112,    113. 

123,   127,  161,  173,  186,  193, 

209 
Reissner,  J.,  99,  113 
Rim-Aku,  193 
Rim-Anum,  89 
Rim-Sin,  64,  111 
Rogers,  R.  W.,  22,  55,  71,  91 
Rosellini,  29 

Sabbath,  55,  60,  61 
Sachau,  Eduard,  204 


Salem,  154 
Samaria,  60 
Samu-el,  102 
Samson,  125 
Sanchoniathan,  52 
Sarah,  40 

Sargon,  90,  97,  181 
Sarpanitu,  57,  133,  136 
Sarugi,  189 

Sayce,  A.  H.,  29,  37,  44,  46,  55, 
63,  66,  76,  89,  125,  141,  146, 
147,  151,  152,  161,  181 
Scheil,  P.  v.,  73,  80,  110,  182, 

183,  184,  186,  188 
Schrader,  E.,  80 
Schumacher,  26 
Sha-Addu,  127 
shahattum,  56 

shabath,  61 

Sha-imeri-shu,  130 

Shalmaneser  II,  98 

Sha-Mash,  79,  127 

Shamash.  38,  78,  80,  81,  82,  100, 
104,  107,  118,  123,  125 

Shamash-li-me-ri,  106 

Shamash-li-wi-ir,^  106 

Shamash-napishtbn,  80 

Sha-NITA-shu,  130 

sha-vat-tum,  55 

SHAR-GA-NI-LUGAL-URU, 
181 

Shargani-shar-d  li,  131 

Shar-Gani-sharri,  113,  182 

Shar-la-ak,  186 

Sharrapu,  116 

Shar-ri-ish-ta-qal,  186 

Sharukin,  194 

Shi-mi-Til-la,  103 

Shinar,  91 

Shum-Malik,  134 

Shumer,  13 

Shuqamuna,  114 

Shur-ki-Til-la,  103 

Sidon,  98 

Siduna,  152 

Siegfried,  C.  162 

Sihon,  145.  154 

Simmiu,  104 


216   AMURRU    HOME    OF   NORTHERN    SEMITES 


Sin,  16.  145.  200 

Sinai,  87 

Sin-magir,  193 

Sin-iddinam,  192 

Sinuhe  novel.  29 

Sippar,  47,  98,  173 

Sisera,  145 

§it,  80 

^it-napishtim,  80 

Steuernagel,  C,,  26 

Strassmaior,  J.  N..  14.  80.  102, 

105.  159,  162,  168 
Stubo.  R.,  162 
Subsalla,  97 
Sumu-abum,  89 
$UR,  101 

Ta'annek,  24.  27,  37 

Ta-i-Til-la,  103 

tabah,  76 

TallqvTst.  K.  L.,  101,  127,  128, 

133,  144 
Talmud,  68 
Tammuz,  16,  20 
Tarkhu.  136 
Tehom.  49,  50 
Te-hi-ip-TU-la,  103 
Tola,  103 
TeU-Deilam.  170 
Toll  el-Amarna,  32,  38 
Toll  ol-Mutesselim.  26 
Toruli.  168 
Thuroau-Dangin,   F.,    Ill,    115, 

143,   180,  181,  182,  184,  187, 

188 
Ti'amat,  46.  48.  148 
ti'amtu,  49.  50,  53 
Tidnnu,  97 
Tidnu,  96,  102,  103 
Tirlo,  ('.  P..  141.  181 
TiKlaDipilosor  I.  60.  98 
Tilla,  102.  103 
Tillah.  103 
Til-Nahiri,  172 
Ti-mn-fish-fji,  129 
Ti-mi-Til-la,  103 
Ti-rn-mas-fji ,  129 
TofTteen,  O.  A.,  98 


TripolLs,  76 
Tyre.  98 

Ubar-Tulu,  66 

U-bi-in-shar-ri,  185 

UD,  80 

UD-UUL-GAL,  58 

UD-TU,  100 

ummanu,  65 

Um-napishtim,  80 

Ungnad,  Arthur,  81,  84,  86.  105, 

106.  140,  145,  147,  170,  209 
Ur,  16,  95 
UR-A,  113 
Urartu,  75 
Uras'h,  89,  122 
Ur-billum,  180 
Ur  djTiasty,  96,  97 
Ur-Engur,  192 
Urfa,  103,  167,  170 
Ur-ha-lu-ub,  120 
t)ri,  13,  102,  192 
Uri(oT  Eri)-Aku,  112 
U-ri-gal-la,  115 
Ur-karinnu,  120 
Ur-Kasdim,  170 
U-ri-Marduk,  117 
Ur-NIN-IB,  118,  193 
Ur-NIN-MAR,  199 
Ur-Pad,  ISO 
Urra,  109.  113.  114 
Urra-b&ni,  109 
Urra-BA-TIL,  109 
Urra-gal,  82,  115 
?^m/,  105 

Ursalimmu,  105,  175,  180 
^r^u,  102 
^m,  38,  7S.  109 
Unt-Az,  180 

Uru(URU)-BA.SAG-SAG,  112 
URU-DINGIR-RA,  110 
ORU-KA-GI-SA,  112,  113 
ffru{URU)-ki-bi,  112 
IJRU-LIG-GA,  110 
ORU-milki,  102,  105.  134 
Urumma,  167 
URir-MU,  110 
Uru-MU-USH,  112 


INDEX 


217 


Uru{URU)-NI-BA-AGA,  112 
URU-RA,  110 
U-ru-sa-lim,  152,  175 
Urya,  107 
USH,  110,  113 
Ush-hi-Sak,  140 
Ushpia,  140 
C/r,  80 

U-ta-na-ish-tim,  81 
Ut-napishtim,  67,  77,  80 
U-tu-ki,  117 
UTU-napishtim,  134 

Vashti,  127 
Vincent,  27 
Viranshehir,  103 

Ward,  W.  H.,  28,  43,  57,  87,  8? 

132,  135,  136 
Warad'Sin,  110 


Weilhausen,  J.,  128 
Winckler,    H.,    14,    16,    17,    21, 
68,  139 

Xisuthrus,  64 

Yahweh,  45,  51,  86,  87,  88,  89, 

90 
Yahweh-jireh,  178 
Yahweh-nissi,  178 
Yahweh-Sebaoth,  121 
Yahweh-shalom,  178 

Zakir,  64,  158 

Zamama,  89 

Zimmern,  H.,  17,  48,  56,  63,  64, 
65,72,79,80,81,89,  100,  114, 
115,  131,  133,  134,  198,  199 

Ziri-Bashani.  151 


Date  Due 

F  3     '41 

.^  -4' 

— — ' 

- — >.. 

#=3S« 

mr 

m^ 

mmmmt. 

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